While mobile money has recorded huge success in various African countries including Kenya, Tanzania and South Africa, the rate of adoption of the initiative is still low in Nigeria, according to Mobile Payment Agency Cooperative.
The President, MPAC, Mr. Gbemi Adelekan, said in a statement that despite the launch of the initiative by the Central Bank of Nigeria some four years ago, the use of mobile money as a cashless means of financial transactions had yet to fully take off despite Nigeria’s massive population, with over 120 million active phone subscriptions.
“The rate of adoption of mobile money is still low when you compare the benefits and great potential for the service which is very high, as seen in the adoption in other countries,” he said.
He said there were some pertinent issues still affecting the mass acceptance and use of the mobile money cashless medium in Nigeria, adding that currently, mobile money was mainly used for Airtime top-up and payment of some utilities including electricity, cable subscriptions and the likes.
“Most of the successes achieved in mobile money in Nigeria involve fund transfers by users with bank accounts. Mobile money as a cashless means for financial transaction is much more than this. It needs to be used more for payment and transfer of money by both banked and the unbanked.”
Adelekan further said the issue of confidence in the use of the mobile money technology needed to be addressed by the mobile money operators to ensure that the use of mobile money as a means of cashless transactions is seamless.
“The inability of customers to complete financial transactions with their mobile phone due to the instability of some mobile money infrastructure is a put off for existing Users and would be customers alike. I must admit that most of the operators have already resolved some of these issues but more needs to be done.”
He said the level of awareness for the use of mobile money needs to be increased radically to enable its take-off and for the system to be more viable for all involved.
“This is where MPAC, the Mobile Payment Agency Cooperative will come in. We are a group of Super Agents and Agents working under a Cooperative model, to represent various mobile money operators to sell the services of Mobile Money to the populace,” said Adelekan.
“We appreciate the effort of the Central Bank of Nigeria on the market sensitisation carried out in the various states on the cashless policy. Although this sensitisation must be ongoing more emphasis must be given to mobile money as one of the electronic payment platform as most people, although aware of cashless channels only think of cards and online payment.”
Punch
