According to the Nigerian Financial Service Market study, one of the primary reasons why people in Nigeria do not have a bank account is a lack of closeness to a financial institution.
Nigeria has a population of more than 100 million people and 4,437 commercial bank branches. This means that a single bank branch will service more than 27,000 customers.
Although financial authorities have attempted to push digital finance systems to compensate for the low number of physical bank branches, many financial institutions have failed to establish low-cost digital finance systems outside of their core regions.
Adults in Nigeria having bank accounts climbed from 33% to 45% between 2012 and 2020, according to the National Financial Inclusion Strategy 2022 (PDF).
Why Are Point-Of-Sale Agents Unable to Promote Financial Inclusion?
When the CBN issued rules for agency banking in 2013, the objective was to increase financial inclusion in the country.While one bank branch must serve 27,000 individuals, one PoS agent must serve only 80 people. This is because, while there are only 4,437 bank branches in the country, there are 1.5 million PoS agents.
With data like these, it's easy to see that PoS agents or agency banking constitute the key to financial inclusion in Nigeria. However, these PoS agents have the same challenge that bank offices do which is location.
Read more: https://www.investingport.com/a-loo...ling-to-drive-financial-inclusion-in-nigeria/