37% of Nigerians Not Aware of Mobile Money Services

A survey has shown that 37 per cent of Nigerians are not aware of mobile money and as such do not use the payment platform.
Philip Consulting disclosed this in a report on mobile money.
According to the report, of the remaining 63 per cent respondents that knew about mobile money, 31 per cent were between the ages of 26 and 35 and constituted the majority.

Also, 15 per cent were between 36 and 45 years, 10 per cent between 18 and 25 years, five per cent between 46 and 55 years and one per cent each for the under 18 and over 55 years age group.

Furthermore, it showed that of the 63 per cent, who knew about mobile money, 25 per cent earn less than N50,000 monthly while 14 per cent earn between N50,001 and N100,000. Also, another 14 per cent earn between N100,001 and N300,000, five per cent earn between N300,001 and  N500,000 and three per cent between N500,001 and N1 million.

“The result of this survey demonstrates that although most of the respondents know about mobile money, adoption of its services is low because many of them are not registered and thus do not use the service.

“The major reason given for this is insufficient information on mobile money services. A minority (17 per cent) of the respondents indicated that they are aware but unregistered because they do not need the service; therefore, it is fair to conclude that 83 per cent of those who know about mobile money would use the service if the problem of lack of information was resolved,” it stated.
It however noted that improved awareness would also help counter customers’ fears over security of their account information and ineffective transaction processing.

According to the report, although the rate of adoption of mobile money appeared to be low, the potential for the service was high.
“In addition to the fact that more people have mobile phones than bank accounts in Nigeria, an increasing number of people are choosing to carry out financial transactions on their mobile phones, instead of at the bank or on their computers/laptops,” it added.

By Obinna Chima