Mobile Money Agents (MMA) have been rated low in the awareness creation index for the all important mobile money service scheme, as respondents to NOI Polls believed banks outperform the MMA in that regards.
In a recent poll by NOI, respondents that have adopted Mobile Money services were asked: Who is your Mobile Money service provider?
The majority (86%) indicated “Banks” as their provider. “This may be due to the fact that banks have been given the responsibility to establish the services over Nigeria,” the research report read.
Also, 12% indicated “Mobile Money agents” as their provider and1% indicated other sources.
Measuring the level of awareness based on age reveals that the age category with the highest number of respondents aware of Mobile Money services is 35-44 years (48%).
This is closely followed by respondents within the age category of 45-54 years (46%). The 65+ age group has the highest proportion of respondents (79%) that are not aware of it, closely followed by the 18-21 age group (78%).
Also during the poll, NOI sought to determine the sources of awareness of Mobile Money services. Respondents who indicated awareness of mobile money services (41%) were subsequently asked: How did you get to Know about Mobile Money services?
Overall the major source of awareness about Mobile Money services as indicated by 36% of the respondents is “Bank”. This is followed by the “Media” (29%) and “Family and friends” (27%).
“From the geo-political zones standpoint, the North-West (48%) and the North-Central (44%) zones account for the highest proportion of respondents that gained awareness on Mobile Money services through banks. Also, more people (47%) from the North-East zone are aware through the media.
“Subsequently, in order to ascertain the level of adoption of Mobile Money services in Nigeria, respondents that are aware of mobile money services were further asked: Personally, do you use/have you ever used Mobile Money services?.
Results show that the majority (87%) of the respondents who are aware of Mobile Money services have not yet adopted it, while 13%have adopted the services and out of these, respondents within the age category of 45-54years (22%) had the highest level of adoption.
“Gauging the level of adoption from geo-political zones revealed that the North-East zone (which had the lowest level of awareness as shown in figure 1) had the highest level of adoption with 31% this is followed by the North-Central zone with 19% and the South-Southzone with 11%.
“Analysis based on geo-political zones shows that all of the respondents (100%) from the North-East, North-West and the South-East zones that use Mobile Money indicated banks as their provider. In addition, the South-West zone (28%) had the highest proportion of respondents who indicated Mobile Money agents as their provider,” NOI observed.
Also another question aimed to determine the ratio of Mobile Money users with bank accounts to those without. Respondents (13%) that use Mobile Money were asked: Do you operate a bank account? Responses to this question revealed that all of the respondents (100%) that use Mobile Money services operate a bank account.
“This suggests that the level of awareness and adoption of Mobile Money services amongst Nigerians without accounts is currently very low and almost non-existent.
On the proportion of users that operate their Mobile Money account in connection with their bank accounts, responses show that majorities (93%) operate their Mobile Money account in connection with their bank account and 7% operate their Mobile Money account separately. This further affirms previous findings where the majority indicated banks as their provider.