Investigation has revealed that over 49 million adult Nigerians do not have mobile phones and, as such, cannot immediately benefit from the mobile money scheme aimed at providing financial inclusion for the un-banked population in the country.
Mobile money involves the transfer of money from one mobile phone to another without any need for a bank account.
Latest figure on the website of the National Population Commission revealed that Nigeria’s population now stands at 167 million people.
Enhancing Financial Innovation & Access, a World Bank-backed body that aims to deepen financial inclusion in the country, in its Access to Financial Services in Nigeria 2010 Survey, found that the country’s population comprised 82.3 per cent of adults or over 137 million Nigerians.
Also, the National Bureau of Statistics, in collaboration with the Central Bank of Nigeria, carried out an Information Communications Technology access survey in 2011 among adult Nigerians between the ages of 15 and 60 years.
The survey, among other things, revealed that 63.9 per cent (representing 88 million) of the country’s 137 million adults already had mobile phones.
“The access and ownership of mobile phones across Nigeria appear as second highest after access to radio. Total access in 2011 stood at 63.9 per cent, with half of the population claiming ownership,” NBS said.
As such, the remaining over 49 million people do not have mobile phones and experts lament that these people may not immediately be able to access mobile money services aimed at servicing the financially excluded members of the population.
Speaking on the implication of this for the mobile money market, the Principal Associate, Mobile Money Africa, Mr. Emmanuel Okoegwale, said though the CBN, which is the regulator of the emerging mobile money scheme, desired that all transactions within the mobile money ecosystem must originate from and terminate on a mobile phone, technologically speaking, this might not be the case.
“If the use of tokens generated at agent locations is allowed, subscribers who do not have phones to generate tokens can visit agent locations and send same to others, who can also visit agent outlets to collect cash,” he said.
Similarly, the Chief Executive Officer, Paga, a mobile money company, Mr. Tayo Oviosu, said, “The fact that not every Nigerian has a cell phone is not an issue. I cannot speak of other operators; however, one does not need a cell phone to use Paga.
“Our agent network is a major component of our organisation and through this network; an individual can send and receive cash through any one of Paga’s approved agents. Those that do not wish to visit an agent can also make use of a friend’s or relative’s cell phone, which is customary in Nigeria.”
Speaking on what could be done to address the problem, Okoegwale said, “In some countries, especially for network operator-driven mobile financial services, low handset devices can be subsidised to the end users and they are locked-in into the network of the service provider.”
Between Oviosu and Okoegwale, no one has ruled out the importance of owning mobile phones for mobile money services to achieve significant penetration in the country.
According to the EFInA Access to Financial Services survey, only 30 per cent of the adult population in the country currently have a bank account, adding that 67.2 per cent of the adult population have never been banked.
The survey also found that only 23.9 million of the country’s 49.2 million adults, who own mobile phones, are currently banked. The remaining 25.3 million adults who own mobile phones, according to the survey, are un-banked.
The report, which exemplified the growing importance of mobile phones in the country, revealed that 56.4 million adults (66.6 per cent of the adult population) have access to a mobile phone; 53.1 million adults (62.6 per cent of the adult population) regularly use a mobile phone; while 49.2 million adults (58.1 per cent of the adult population) own a mobile phone.
The Chief Executive Officer, EFInA, Mrs. Modupe Ladipo, said this underscored the potential for using mobile phones as a distribution channel for providing financial services to the un-banked.
The report also revealed that Nigeria lagged behind South Africa, Botswana and Kenya in terms of the percentage of the population who were financially served.
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