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BusinessDay Annual Mobile Money Roundtable 2013: Making Mobile Money Work in Nigeria

Staff Writer

According to its Maya Declaration the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has committed to reducing “the percentage of adult Nigerians that are excluded from financial services from the current 46.3% (39.2 million adult Nigerians) to 20% by the year 2020.” Mobile financial services are a core component of the national financial inclusion strategy (FIS) the CBN launched on October 23, 2012, to achieve this objective. Mobile payments are a key asset to enable the development of provision of other services in areas such as health, agriculture, welfare, etc. Mobile money is a sustainable, scalable approach to providing convenient and affordable financial services to the unbanked. More than one billion customers in developing markets have access to a mobile phone, but do not have a formal bank account. Mobile money in sub-Saharan Africa has a potential of 134 million customers. Of the 20 countries that use mobile money in the world, 15 are in Africa. Visa Incorporated and Fundamo, the Visa-owned mobile money platform, have said the Nigerian market has potential to lead the world in mobile money, but only 35 per cent of the citizens are aware of mobile money. The market in Kenya is considered the most developed. But the Kenyan model has proved difficult to replicate elsewhere. In Nigeria the huge possibilities remain untapped. Their study stated that there were 110 million mobile subscribers in Nigeria, but only 56 million of them had bank accounts, making it one of the most exciting mobile money markets in the world. In Nigeria, of the 25.5 million adults who have a bank product, 4.8 million are aware of mobile money products; 400,000 adults (0.5 percent of the adult population) are registered with any mobile money operator, and mobile money is often used to buy airtime, according to a 2012 survey by EFInA. The Central Bank of Nigeria wants to monitor cash in circulation to ensure price and economic stabilisation and it has thus licensed commercial banks and other companies as mobile money operators. The push by mobile telephone companies to add mobile payment to their services has continued to attract reactions, with analysts warning that it is not yet time for them to compete with banks originally licensed to render the services. The potential for mobile payments in Nigeria is huge. Demand might be seen as low now, but that is because the industry is still a way off in exploiting the full potential of the market. But the lack of a definitive business model is crippling adoption; the volume of mobile money transactions in Nigeria is creeping. So some of the questions on the lips of many experts has remained- Is a poor business model or regulation hindering the sector? Will a telco-driven model in Nigeria spur faster adoption of the mobile money service? Sub-Themes Some other topics that would be considered at the conference include: The role of financial regulators in helping to make non-bank e-money providers sound and effective.   Organisations can participate as sponsors of the Summit in any of the categories as follows: Sponsors of the round table, organizations will enjoy the following benefits among others: Gold Sponsor Sponsorship Value: Silver Sponsor Sponsorship Value: Bronze Sponsor Sponsorship Value: Conference Details: Date: July 18th, 2013. Venue: The Civic Centre, Ozumba Mbadiwe Street, Victoria Island, Lagos. Time: 10:00am We will let you have in the coming week, further details about the conference, including speakers and any other information relevant to your participation in this event. For first line contact on this, call 08034019000, Amadi Iheukwumere on 07082256051 and Adebusola on 08176735693, or email to: amadi [at] businessdayonline.com      and adebusola [at] businessdayonline.com
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