Results from a total demographic study carried out by the Enhancing Financial Innovation and Access has shown that from a sample of 93.5 million Nigerian adults, only 33.9 million are banked.

According to the EFIA findings, the other 59.6 million adults are either financially excluded or are served by informal financial channels like savings club/pool, esusu, ajo or moneylenders as well as remittances through informal channels such as transport services and recharge cards.

“Essentially, this means that approximately, only one in five Nigerian adults have a bank account, with approximately one bank branch and one Automated Teller Machine for every 10,000 people,” the EFIA stated in its report.

The situation, the report hinted, was indicative of a population that was highly marginalised in the area of access to financial services.

The EFIA is an organisation committed to deepening financial inclusion in Nigeria.

It further stated that since the launch of mobile money in the country in 2012, only 11.9 million adults (12.7 per cent of the adult population) were aware of the service.

The report added that out of the number, only 0.8 million adults (approximately 0.8 per cent of the adult population) currently used mobile money services.

It also indicated that although the formal financial sector had grown over the past two years, there had been no significant impact on the level of financial inclusion.

Statistics from the Central Bank of Nigeria showed that there was an increase of over 300 per cent in value transactions across various mobile money schemes in the country between January and July 2014.

Yet, telecommunication companies in the country said at the end of January 2014, the value of monthly transactions across different networks stood at just N300m, but reached the N1.2bn mark by the end of July of the same year.

The General Manager, Corporate Affairs, MTN Nigeria, Ms. Funmi Onajide, said the figure did not include transactions carried out within individual networks.

“The volume of transactions within the same period also increased from 12,000 deals in January 2014 to 35,000 in July 2014, representing 199 per cent increase. This showed the increasing ability to replace cash with digital money transfer via mobile phones,” she said.

However, when asked why many Nigerians using mobile money were those with bank accounts, Onajide said telecommunication frameworks leveraged huge existing customer base and technology to drive significant adoption and that there was easier opportunity for access to financial services.

She said, “That is why a collaborative approach between the telcos and the banks is desirable.

“Given the population, size and complexity of the Nigerian society, a framework that allows both banks and the network operators drive strategic partnerships will be best suited for the attainment of mobile money vision for Nigeria. Unfortunately, that is not the case at the moment.”

Onajide added that there was an urgent need for an all-inclusive framework that would allow strategic partnerships by all stakeholders, noting that this would ensure that Nigeria could deliver similar growth to that recorded by Kenya.

She added, “This position is premised on the following key facts: African mobile operators have a wider reach than banks today in terms of distribution and, therefore, have the potential to on-board many more customers at the bottom of the pyramid than banks can through their branch networks.

“As a function of this reach, but also because of this being an incremental service alongside core mobile services, the cost of acquisition for a mobile operator is far lower than for a bank.

“Mobile operators are not deposit-taking institutions, and for the overall good of the industry, it seems to us that more collaboration between the banks and the operators is needed.”

http://www.punchng.com/business/business-economy/60-million-nigerians-dont-have-bank-accounts-report/

Where's the money to put in the account?
For Naija, as money come na so we dey spend am.
#StoryEnds

Even the people that owns an account,how much is there?

Nigeria is a country where saving habit isn't encouraged,due to hostility of the economy..

Inflation rate is high,so therefore saving will be difficult,or nearly impossible..

Person wey naked no fit shook hand for pocket now...

are you serious?

more than 60million youths dnt hv jobs.. so tell me hw will they hv account wen they are faustrated in NIGERIA

Hmmm...
This is hard to blive, most bank ve products for low earners nah.
With 1k u can open an account, so if we still ve such huge figure then somthing is wrong with d economy or its citizens.

I could remember a product by 1st bank then that allows u open an acct wivout shishi, is it dat these adult dont blive in banking services.

Buh wiv d multitude i see in some bank branches i doubt that figure..

No b pesin wey get money go open acct..

They are not missing anything...at least that's one less form of societal exploitation to worry about.

Dis apens in a country wia u sleep @nite wt d price of a commodity being sold 4 #50 den u wake only 2 fnd d cost of dat commodity 2 increase by 75%....xo tel me aw wud dey kip dier money in bank n 2 make matters worse dey would go 2ru a hell lot of stress jux 2 wtdraw 1k [color=#000099][/color]

Safest place to keep money is under the ground for backyard

e no matter na....

we dont need it


All we want is an action president.

March 28th where art thou?

lol.... we prefer keeping our money inside KOLO

error 222!!!

the subject appears twice on d front page.

***Edited***

now corrected

Mistake Checker Pro.apk installed on the front page.

Na Esusu things sure pass o.

Especially for those at the bottom of the pyramid.

Everybody can't own an account. Some people run businesses that require constant cash flow and most of our banks do not make that flow easy.
Imagine going to an ATM to withdraw money urgently and it's down.
Even in the banking halls, the queues are as long as 3rd mainland bridge.
I own a bank account but I only use it when necessary.

And what's d necessity of having a bank account To monitor people right

ok

I want to even close my bank account 1,085 since december. And those foolish 1st bank still dey charge me some unnecessary charges. Sms alert, bank alerts,FG alerts,PDP alerts.

They use safe boxes.

www.dnbstories.com

Do they really need it when they have a phone? CBN should come over to Kenya & understudy how Mpesa & Airtel money are running things here. All my money is in my Airtelkenya simcard which l can withdraw wit my Airtel Visa card when am in Nigeria!

I get kolo am good

why do u need account now?

When bank itself don't encourage... Their charges at times are enormous

APC WANTS TO SHARE MONEY!!!

Ok, but i've mine.

I no gree

.

Until banks become customer friendly and easily accessible that's goan be the case o.Some that even have still do the esusu and ajo contributions and it always pulls through for them in times of need that's the reliability of the traditional ways of doing things.