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The Federal Government has said it would leverage the expansive network of the Nigerian Postal Services (NIPOST) to reduce the unbanked adult population in the country to 10 per cent by 2016.

Minister of Communication Technology, Dr Omobola Johnson, who stated this in a presentation in Lagos, said the move was in line with the government鈥檚 bid to accelerate financial inclusion in Nigeria through creation of agent cash point for mobile money scheme.

Mobile money scheme, introduced by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) with about 18 mobile money operators already issued licences in the last three years, allows individuals to send monetary values through their mobile devices.

According to the minister, though the country currently has 35 million adult Nigerians (about 46 per cent) financially excluded, the network of postal outlets operated by NIPOST constitutes the most widespread retail network in the country to boost financial inclusion.

Johnson stated that the postal financial services to be delivered in partnership with banks, telecoms companies and other Information Technology companies.

She said: 鈥淲e are working to ensure that we leverage NIPOST to drive financial inclusion in the country. Already, the government shall select transaction advisor by the fourth quarter of 2014 and select partners in the scheme by second quarter of 2015.

鈥淭he partnership is anticipated to be available to deliver services by the second quarter of 2016. On the anticipated effect of this scheme, it is envisaged that after being in operation for one year, this service should be able to reduce number of unbanked Nigerians by 10 per cent (3.5 million).鈥? The minister said that mobile money is currently mostly used to buy airtime, it, however, has the potential to serve as a platform for drawing more people into formal financial services.

According to her, 鈥淢ore people in Nigeria have a mobile phone than have a bank account. Today, 75 per cent of adults living in urban areas and 39 per cent of them living in rural areas have access to a pre-paid mobile phone.

鈥淎lso, 18 mobile money operators have been registered in Nigeria since commencement of operations. There are approximately 1 million subscribers to mobile money services; about 67,000 registered agents while over 11 million transactions of over $600 million have been conducted.鈥?

Whilst uptake of mobile money has been initially slow, Johnson said that improving infrastructure, fine-tuning of legislation and increasing confidence in product by consumers will result in significant acceleration,鈥漵he added.

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