It’s no secret that mobile finances are in the ascendent in Africa. While m-payments are being touted in Europe and America as a more convenient way to bank and pay, in Africa they mean so much more. And recent research shows that Nigerians trust their mobile more than a bank when it comes to handling money.
Why is mobile money so popular in Africa?
In countries like Uganda, Kenya and Nigeria, mobile devices are being used more every day to access banking services. A major part of the reason for this is a simple lack of brick-and-mortar banks. A customer may have to travel for hours (or days) to reach an actual bank, where mobile banking allows the bank to come to the customer. While it is true that on-line banking can do the same thing, in these countries the infrastructure doesn’t really exits to support internet users. Computers are expensive, and more robust networks are required to move more data – but mobile banking can be run on older 2G networks, and can be accessed with mobile phones that are far cheaper than a computer.
What is the research?
MobileMoneyAfrica is a website dedicated to the efforts in bringing mobile financial services to the unbanked. It has published preliminary results from a survey that indicate 65% of Nigerians who live outside heavily urban areas prefer to use their phones for banking than banks. And a much higher percentage, 95%, would not go back home to collect their checkbook if they forgot, but would do so for their mobile device.
What we think?
Now it’s worth bearing in mind that this survey isn’t actually finished yet. It’s a five-month effort, and the final results won’t be available until the end of March – these preliminary results were shared with BusinessDay Online. But it doesn’t seem likely to me that the final results will show anything remarkably different. In fact, if anything, I would expect that figure of 65% to go up.
Because those figures don’t seem all that shocking to me. The thing about a survey like this in Nigeria is that a huge amount of the people surveyed have no option but to use their mobile phone for banking. Of course they prefer their mobile! It’s either that or get no banking done. But even more than that, what we have here is a large test group of people who have experienced mobile banking. I do a lot of banking on-line and over my mobile phone – and I haven’t set foot in my branch in some time. I think most people who get a taste of how easy banking can be if you cut the actual building out of the equation tend not to go back.
