Economy
The Gift Card Economy: Exploring the Rise of Gift Cards
The greatest way of expressing love and gratitude is through gifting. Since the history of mankind, the act of gifting is an integral part of every society in the world.
In traditional society, people send tangible items as gifts but the transition into a digital society has revealed gift cards to be the currency of the act of gifting.
Some time ago before gift card adoption evolved to a substantial extent like it is today, it was considered nothing more than a worthless and inefficient plastic card.
Today in Nigeria, gift cards have become the perfect gift choice for gift givers and recipients as well because of their convenience, portability and value. The transition to a more digital society has also reshaped people’s shopping behaviour, stirring a massive adaptation to online shopping, hence, giving more credence and value to gift cards.
With the use of gift cards, gift givers need not worry about the type of gifts to buy. They just simply purchase the gift cards from stores and send them to the recipient, who will redeem them for any type of gifts suitable to them or find means of how to sell gift cards.
Gift cards serve as a surprise gift for a retiree, employee, friend, lover and many more and it is very important to choose gift cards with the highest resale value when gifting them. This will enable them to profit from the high gift card rates if they don’t want to buy gifts from the store and decide to sell them.
Some recipients can even sell gift cards for cash if they don’t need the gift item.
With the massive acceptance of gift cards over the years, gift card trading will continue to grow with the economy as it gives a more personalized, digital and convenient gifting experience.
The Magical Transformation: From Inefficiency To Efficiency
The innovation of the first gift card in 1994 and other brands which later joined the gift card market in the early 2000s, was ensued by some bottlenecks which projected the invention as inefficient.
Apart from the major problem of gift card fraud which took a toll on the industry due to the feeble nature of the market, many customers did not utilise the gift cards they purchased.
Many people challenged the efficiency of gift cards when the New York Times in 2007 asserted that about $8 billion out of the $80 billion spent on gift cards in 2006 was not redeemed. In fact, due to the rate of unredeemed gift cards, some economists asserted that gift cards were poor gifts which were merely gifts bought for the issuing companies who earn “breakage” (unclaimed gift cards reclaimed by the issuing company) from them.
However, in recent times, due to the technological and e-commerce revolutions, the archaic perspective about gift cards had become history and gift cards have become the most desirable gifting experience.
The Trend Gap Of The Gift Card Economy: An Exchange of True Value
When we consider the constant e-commerce and digital revolutions we live, one may understand that people are open to giving and receiving gift cards for many reasons like;
1. Flexible Spending And Unlimited Choice Of Gift Cards:
Even though there are some restrictions on the closed-loop gift cards which would force users to only spend the gift card on that same brand, 78.7% of people still use gift cards from strange brands and about 87.7% tend to become customers afterwards. However, an open-loop gift can be redeemed at any store that accepts debit and credit cards. This type of gift card is not restrictive to brand stores, hence, the versatility of gift cards makes it a perfect gift choice.
2. Gift Card Purchases Are Now Planned:
Unlike the old popular belief that gift cards gifting is not properly planned which makes it a poor gift, a gift card report by Incomm stated that 86% of gift cards purchased in the US are planned and 55.8% of recipients received the gift cards for their brand of choice.
3. Number Of Unused Gift Cards Drop Annually:
In the early days of gift card usage, one of the problems was the big fraction of unredeemed gift cards. However, according to Bankrate, the number of unused gift cards reduced by 25% annually.
4. Gift Card Purchases For Personal Use:
Individuals tend to buy more gift cards for themselves than they did in the past ten years. According to research by Black Hawk Network, 33% of the gift cards purchased in 2019 were for the owners.
Some of the reasons individuals purchase personal gift cards are;
- Financial budgeting and diplomacy
- The convenience of gift card transaction
- The safety of gift cards
- An alternative method of payment
Conclusion
The gift economy is still a fast-growing one which has been predicted to reach about $440 billion by 2027. With the desire for convenience, value and safety in gifting and transactions, gift cards are the ideal gifting strategy and also, a very good way to make in-store and online transactions with ease.
By Adedapo Adesanya
The NASD Over-the-Counter (OTC) Securities Exchange opened the week with a 0.52 per cent rise on Monday, July 20, driven by renewed buying interest.
The volume of securities traded during the opening session surged by 6,663.3 per cent to 52.6 million units from the previous 777,002 units, and the value of securities rose by 200.9 per cent to N191.2 million from the preceding session’s N104.2 million, while the number of deals depreciated by 15.2 per cent to 28 deals compared to the preceding session’s 33 deals.
Great Nigeria Insurance (GNI) Plc remained the most active stock by value on a year-to-date basis, with 3.4 billion units sold for N8.4 billion, followed by Infrastructure Credit Guarantee (Infracredit) Plc with 2.3 billion units valued at N6.5 billion in trades, and Central Securities Clearing System (CSCS) Plc with 75.4 million units exchanged for N5.3 billion.
GNI Plc also closed the day as the most traded stock by volume on a year-to-date basis, with 3.4 billion units worth N8.4 billion, followed by Infracredit Plc with 2.3 billion units transacted for N6.5 billion, and Resourcery Plc with 1.1 billion units traded for N415.7 million.
Yesterday, there were two price gainers and three price losers, led by FrieslandCampina Wamco Nigeria Plc, which slid by 66 Kobo to end at N141.15 per unit versus last Friday’s N141.81 per unit, Food Concepts Plc lost 24 Kobo to close at N2.31 per share versus N2.55 per share, and Geo-Fluids Plc declined by 17 Kobo to settle at N2.25 per unit compared with the previous closing price of N2.42 per unit.
Conversely, CSCS Plc chalked up N5.19 to close at N99.33 per share versus N94.14 per share, and Mass Telecoms Plc appreciated by 3 Kobo to sell at 35 Kobo per unit from 32 Kobo per unit.
As a result, the market capitalisation increased by N13.57 billion to N2.606 trillion from N2.593 trillion, and the NASD Security Index (NSI) gained 22.6 points to quote at 4,343.27 points, in contrast to the previous 4,320.67 points.
By Adedapo Adesanya
The Naira almost traded flat against the United States Dollar in the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEX) on Monday, July 20. It gained 7 Kobo during the session to sell at N1,380.11/$1, in contrast to last Friday’s value of N1,380.18/$1.
It also appreciated against the Euro in the same market window during the session by N1.64 to close at N1,575.95/€1 versus the preceding session’s N1,576.99/€1, but depreciated against the Pound Sterling by N2.93 to trade at N1,857.35/£1 compared with the previous trading day’s N1,854.42/£1.
At the GTBank forex desk, the Nigerian Naira lost N1 against the US Dollar to quote at N1,389/$1 versus N1,388/$1, and at the black market, it traded flat at N1,405/$1.
Data from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) showed that interbank FX turnover settled at $266.2 million, 7.5 per cent lower than the previous close of $287.8 million. Also, the number of deals at the interbank FX market declined to 68 from 106.
Despite this, there are signals that the Naira has pillars that can prop up its stability. Updated data from the apex bank showed Nigeria’s gross foreign exchange reserves increased to $51.92 billion as of July 16, 2026, reflecting continued improvements in the country’s external position.
A slew of analysts predict further increases will lift the gross balance above $52 billion this week, the highest seen since 2009.
Also, there are expectations that the country will be able to boost remittances into the country to $1 billion on a monthly basis by the end of the year; this will help ease pressure on the FX markets.
Meanwhile, in the crypto market, Bitcoin (BTC) climbed to about $65,500, reaching a two-week high, as the semiconductor selloff that dragged crypto lower last week reversed and Asian chip stocks led a broad risk rally. It rose by 2.4 per cent to $65,676.01.
There was also support from five straight days of inflows into US spot Bitcoin ETFs totalling more than $600 million, marking the strongest stretch of institutional buying since mid-July.
Cardano (ADA) jumped by 8.3 per cent to $0.1756, Ethereum (ETH) grew by 4.0 per cent to $1,930.33, Ripple (XRP) improved by 3.9 per cent to $1.13, Solana (SOL) appreciated by 3.2 per cent to $78.34, Binance Coin (BNB) added 1.9 per cent to sell for $575.34, and Dogecoin (DOGE) expanded by 1.7 per cent rise to $0.0729.
However, TRON (TRX) declined by 0.1 per cent to $0.3261, and the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and the US Dollar Coin (USDC) traded flat at $1.00 each
By Dipo Olowookere
Sustained bargain-hunting in local stocks further lifted the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited by 1.12 per cent on Monday.
The buying pressure was across the major sectors of Customs Street, though the consumer goods space came under profit-taking, closing flat.
But the banking counter expanded by 3.14 per cent, the industrial goods index gained 2.82 per cent, the insurance sector increased by 0.25 per cent, and the energy segment soared by 0.08 per cent.
Consequently, the All-Share Index (ASI) surged by 2,721.83 points to 246,183.96 points from 243,462.13 points, and the market capitalisation went up by N1.755 trillion to N158.812 trillion from N157.057 trillion.
Custodian Investment and NEM Insurance chalked up 10.00 per cent each to sell for N75.90 and N30.80, respectively, BUA Cement rose by 9.98 per cent to N303.10, First Holdco improved by 9.95 per cent to N105.50, and FTN Cocoa advanced by 9.94 per cent to N9.29.
On the flip side, SUNU Assurances shrank by 10.00 per cent to N3.60, Tripple Gee slipped by 9.77 per cent to N3.51, ABC Transport tumbled by 9.62 per cent to N7.05 per cent, Abbey Bank crashed by 9.00 per cent to N9.10, and Coronation Insurance dipped by 7.69 per cent to N2.40.
The market breadth index was flat yesterday, as there were 31 price gainers and 31 price losers.
First Holdco led the activity chart during the session, with a turnover of 203.9 million shares valued at N21.5 billion. Access Holdings sold 190.7 million equities worth N4.8 billion, UBA traded 29.2 million stocks for N1.4 billion, Zenith Bank transacted 24.7 million shares valued at N2.9 billion, and Sterling Holdings exchanged 23.6 million equities worth N187.4 million.
When trading activities ended at 4 pm, investors traded 851.6 million stocks for N49.6 billion in 56,873 deals compared with the 685.9 million stocks valued at N42.7 billion transacted in 44,134 deals last Friday, representing a rise in the trading volume, value, and number of deals by 24.16 per cent, 16.16 per cent, and 28.86 per cent, respectively.
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