Nearly 9 in 10 Nigerians don’t have bank accounts

Less than 20 million Nigerians operate bank accounts, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) revealed on Thursday.

This means that more than 150 million Nigerians do not have a bank account.

“In Nigeria, there are over 100 million mobile phones available to serve customers,” Head of CBN Shared Services, Mr. Aaron Yaduma said during a cashless policy sensitisation programme in Yola, Adamawa State.

“Meanwhile there are less than 6,000 bank branches, 10,000 Automated Teller Machines (ATM), as well as 200,000 point of sale terminals (POSs), and less than 20 million bank accounts in the country.”

Yaduma, also disclosed that mobile phone is the cheapest electronic channel for transactions, and urged its users to strengthen the CBN Cashless policy.

He identified Mobile Money, which entails the use of mobile phones as a banking tool both for the banked and the unbanked, as a major focus for financial inclusion.