By PETER EGWUATU

*Teenagers, young people show higher interest..
The target of monetary authorities to attract the unbanked into the banking system and other  cashless initiative introduced by the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, in the banking sector is yet to gain momentum.

Latest weekly poll results released by NOI Polls Limited revealed that about six in 10 (59 percent) Nigerians are not aware of mobile money services and only 13 percent of the 41 percent that are knowledgeable of it, have adopted it, showing a very low adoption rate.

Findings have also revealed that, teenagers, young and middle aged adults are more willing to adopt the services than senior citizens. Furthermore, all respondents (100 percent) that use mobile money services operate a bank account and 93 percent operate their mobile money account in connection with their bank accounts.

This shows that Mobile Money services have not had any impact on the financial inclusion of the unbanked Nigerians so far. The general perception of users of the mobile money service as indicated by majority is that it is easy to use, it is secure, service providers are easily accessible, it saves cost and time. These are the key findings from the Mobile Money Services Snap Poll conducted in the week of 5th August 2013.

In recent times, the CBN introduced mobile money services to provide basic financial services and create payment access especially to unbanked Nigerians, and also help drive financial inclusion in the country. Mobile money enables monetary transactions to be done on mobile phones through text messaging. Operations that can be carried out include money deposit, bills payments, funds transfer and withdrawal, payment for purchased goods and services and it serves as an alternative way of storing money for both the banked as well as the unbanked.

Point of Sales, POS, facilities

More than a year into its introduction, the scheme has suffered slow-adoption by Nigerians as the licensed operators of the mobile money services have not made great headway in the deployment of the services across the country. Some challenges the scheme has faced is the low awareness and adoption, lack of finance and basic infrastructure; few agents, and the exclusion of mobile operators from taking part in the execution of the service.

NOI Polls conducted its latest poll on Mobile Money Services Snap Poll to explore the level of awareness of Nigerians on the services, determine the present adoption rate by banked and unbanked Nigerians, as well as the potential for its adoption in the future.

The findings from the poll revealed that 41 percent of the respondents are aware of mobile money services and out of these, only 13 percent have adopted it. Major sources of awareness of mobile money services that emerged from the poll include “Banks” indicated by 36 percent , “Media (TV, Radio, Newspaper etc.)” indicated by 29 percent of the respondents, and “Family and friends”, indicated by 27 percent .

Majority of the users (86 percen) indicated “Banks” as their provider; this may be due to the fact that licenced banks have been majorly given the responsibility to establish the services in Nigeria. Relatively, 12 percent indicated “mobile money agents” as their provider and one percent indicated other sources.

The perceptions of Nigerians on the general use of mobile money showed that regarding the ease of its use, 55 percent affirmed that the service is easy, 38 percent say the service is not easy to use and seven percent were indifferent about the ease of its use. In reference to the accessibility of service providers, 55 percent of the respondents are of the opinion that service providers are easily accessible, while 39 percent are in disagreement to the statement, six percent are neutral.

In terms of the security involved in using the services, 56 percent affirmed that it is secure to use, 26 percent consider it unsecure, and 18 percent are indifferent. In terms of the processes involved, 60 percent affirmed that it saves time. 36 percent do not agree that its use saves time and four percent remained indifferent. Concerning cost savings, 63 percent are of the opinion that it saves cost, 36 percent do not agree that there is cost saving associated with the use of mobile money services.

The poll also revealed that the mobile money services has great future adoption potentials as 71 percent of the respondents who have not yet adopted it are willing to give it a try in the future.