60% OF NIGERIANS IGNORANT OF MOBILE MONEY -REPORT

Six in 10 Nigerians (59 percent, about 94 million) are not aware of mobile money services and only 13 percent (about 20 million) of the 41 percent (about 66 million) that are knowledgeable of it have adopted it, findings from the latest weekly mobile money services snap poll has revealed.

Findings from the poll also revealed that teenagers, young and middle aged adults are more willing to adopt the services than older citizens.  The general perception of users of the mobile money service as indicated by majority is that it is easy to use, secure, accessible, saves cost and time.
Mobile Money is a service that enables monetary transactions to be done on mobile phones through text messaging. Operations that can be carried out include money deposit, bills payments, funds transfer and withdrawal payment for purchased goods and services.
The poll which was conducted by NOI Polls Limited, a Nigerian opinion polling and research organisation, said its latest poll on mobile money services snap poll was carried out to explore the level of awareness of Nigerians on the services and to determine the present adoption rate of Nigerians, as well as the potential for its adoption in the future.
The  findings further revealed that despite the poor level of awareness, banks have proved to be major sources of awareness of mobile money services than the media or family and friends, as well as being the major service provider than mobile money agents.
Findings from the poll is an indication that the CBN needs to do more  in terms of awareness to drive the success of the cashless policy and reach  majority of the financially excluded populace. As Nigeria is currently transitioning towards being a cashless economy, more awareness has to be created about the mobile money payment option with emphasis placed on including the rural population and unbanked Nigerians in the roll out process.