Nigeria’s mobile money scheme grapples with 1% penetration

The Executive Vice Chairman, Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Prof. Umar Danbatta, at an interaction with journalists in Lagos, lamented that mobile money is grappling at one per cent penetration in the country because it is bank-led.

According to him, other region, where the scheme is thriving has been because it was telco-led, “as such we need to re-direct our focus and ensure that appropriate model is adopted adequately.”

Danbatta said there should be effective cooperation among all the various stakeholders in the value chain that is the telecommunications operators, agents, CBN and the services providers too.

He revealed that discussions are on-going in the industry on how to get telcos to become super agents in the scheme of things.

“With the population we have in the country, Nigeria should play big in the mobile money ecosystem in Africa. Only about one per cent that is about two million Nigerians is currently on the scheme. That is rather too poor. All hands must be on deck to revive that sub-sector of the economy.

“If we are to improve on Nigeria’s digital landscape, we must revive the mobile ecosystem, which includes the mobile money scheme,” he stated.

Meanwhile, at the just concluded Mobile 360 – West Africa event held in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, the Global System for Mobile Telecommunications Association (GSMA), he launch of the GSMA Mobile Money Certification, a global scheme for mobile money providers to offer safer, more transparent and resilient financial services to millions of mobile money users around the world.