What is Financially Under-Served

Nigeria, like many developing economies has been fighting financial exclusion through different mechanisms and with financial inclusion target set at 80% by 2020 by its National Financial Inclusion Strategy, mobile money has been identified as a platform for achieving this goal. Consequently, twenty-one mobile money operators were licensed by the apex bank (Central Bank of Nigeria) to provide mobile money services to millions of Nigerians as a means of bridging the gap between the financially served, the under-served as well as the un-served. Using empirical evidence from two nationwide mobile money adoption and financial inclusion surveys, and a synthesis of technology acceptance and use models, this chapter explores the causes of mobile money adoption and extent of use across the adult population. It further provides recommendations to policy makers, mobile money operators and agents as well as institutions that support the enhancement of financial inclusion towards optimizing the benefits of mobile money and realization of the 80% financial inclusion target.