Almost two years after the Central Bank
of Nigeria introduced mobile money services to drive financial inclusion
in the country, a new survey by NOI Polls has revealed that about 59
per cent of the populace are unaware that such services exist.
Mobile money enables monetary transactions to be done on mobile phones through text messaging.
Of the 41 per cent citizens that are
knowledgeable about mobile money services, only 13 per cent have adopted
it, indicating a very low adoption rate, according to the report.
The CBN introduced mobile money services
to provide basic financial services and create payment access,
especially to the unbanked, and also help to drive financial inclusion
in the country.
Operations that can be carried out
through mobile money include money deposit, bill payment, funds transfer
and withdrawal, and payment for goods and services. It serves as an
alternative way of storing money for both the banked and the unbanked.
The NOI Polls report showed that
teenagers, young and middle-aged adults were more willing to utilise the
services than senior citizens.
The report, which was made available to
our correspondent on Wednesday, stated, “About six in 10 (59 per cent)
Nigerians are not aware of mobile money services and only 13 per cent of
the 41 per cent that are knowledgeable of it have adopted it, showing a
very low adoption rate.
“Findings have also revealed that
teenagers, young and middle aged adults are more willing to adopt the
services than senior citizens.”
The survey, however, noted that all
respondents who used mobile money services operated a bank account and
that 93 per cent of them operated their mobile money accounts in
connection with their bank accounts.
The report further stated, “This shows
that mobile money services have not had any impact on the financial
inclusion of the unbanked Nigerians so far. The general perception of
users of the mobile money service as indicated by the majority is that
it is easy to use, it is secure, service providers are easily
accessible, it saves cost and it saves time.
“These are the key findings from the Mobile Money Services Snap Poll conducted in the week of August 5, 2013.”
The scheme has suffered slow adoption by
Nigerians as the licensed operators of mobile money services have not
made a significant headway in the deployment of the services across the
states.
Some of the challenges the scheme has
faced include low awareness and adoption; lack of finance and basic
infrastructure; very few agents; and the exclusion of mobile operators
from taking part in the execution of the services.
According to the survey, majority of the users (86 per cent) indicated ‘banks’ as their financial service provider.
This, according to the poll, may be due
to the fact that licensed banks have been mostly given the
responsibility to establish the services in Nigeria.
Relatively, 12 per cent indicated ‘mobile money agents’ as their provider and one per cent indicated other sources.
The report, however, concluded that
mobile money services had great future adoption potential as 71 per cent
of the respondents, who had yet to adopt it, were willing to give it a
try in the future.
The report stated, “However, what is key
to note is the almost non-adoption of this service by the unbanked,
this can be detrimental to the success of the cash-less policy as a
large percentage of the adult population remains unbanked.
“As Nigeria is currently transitioning
towards being a cash-less economy, more awareness has to be created
about the mobile money payment option with emphasis placed on including
the rural population and unbanked Nigerians in the roll out process.”
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