With 128.5m projected mobile subscriptions by 2025, Nigeria can achieve 80% financial inclusion
Tuesday, May 1, 2018
By Yinka Awosanya
Of the 15 countries in the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), Nigeria is expected to contribute 51% of the projected additional 72 million unique mobile subscriptions in the region by 2025.
With unique mobile subscribers currently at 93.5 million, coupled with the projected growth, Nigeria is likely to hit its financial inclusion target for 2020. But this is dependent on if the recent Memorandum of Understanding signed by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) adopts a telco-led model.
The telco-led model for mobile money has been avoided for a while, seeing as it could potentially create fierce competition between telcos and the banks, on the notion that telcos already have the infrastructure in place and the numbers, in terms of subscribers.
Aside from the recent agreement with NCC, the apex monetary authority has made attempts to drive its financial inclusion goals, one of which is the National Financial Inclusion Strategy (PDF) released in 2013 to reduce the percentage of adults in the country excluded from financial services which, according to a recent report by the World Bank, stands at 40%.
