NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Friday, March 14, 2014

With the introduction of cashless economy by the Central Bank of Nigeria since 2012, coupled with the efforts put in by the apex bank to drive financial inclusion in the country, the volume of cash transaction in the country would have been greatly reduced. This however has not been achieved, a situation which financial and technology experts have blamed on low awareness on the need to use electronic channels, especially the mobile money and electronic cards for transactions.

CBN’s Initiative
The Central Bank of Nigeria in 2010 introduced the cashless initiative and gave provisional licenses to 16 mobile money operators to carryout pilot scheme on mobile money across the country. In August 2011, CBN released the final list of 11 mobile money operators, but restricted all 11 from going commercial until they get commercial approval from CBN.

The CBN later gave commercial approval to the 11 operators, mandating them to go full blown into cities and remote parts of the country in sensitising Nigerians on the need to embrace mobile money transactions, which is an electronic means of using mobile phone or personal digital assistant for initiation or confirmation of payment transactions.