Coronavirus pandemic spawns Nigeria banking agent boom

By Nneka Chile and Alexis Akwagyiram
LAGOS, March 4 (Reuters) - When Lagos imposed a lockdown
last year, Nigerian civil servant Ruth Oladimeji saw a way to
earn extra money. With people unable to visit banks due to the
coronavirus pandemic, she became an agent providing local
banking services.
Oladimeji signed up with Moniepoint, a mobile money platform
on whose behalf she helps customers with services such as
opening accounts and withdrawing cash.
"It has increased my standard of living. It has helped me be
able to support people financially," said the mother-of-two,
adding that she previously struggled to pay school fees and
support elderly relatives on her civil service salary.
Oladimeji has set up six kiosks in her community in just
under a year and, in a country where most people live on less
than $2 a day, said she earns more than 60,000 naira ($160)
every day.
While people can visit banks again, social distancing rules
make it a time-consuming business and the local mobile money
kiosks are more easily accessible.
Mobile money firms across Africa are ramping up plans to
bring banking to millions after the pandemic caused a surge in
the use of digital financial services. Firms in Nigeria say they
have recruited more agents to meet demand. Solomon Amadi, vice president of Moniepoint, said the
company's banking agents had increased from 8,000 in 2019 to
more than 50,000 in February 2021.
Similarly, Dotun Adekunle, vice president of product
engineering at payment platform OPay, said it had nearly 400,000
agents nationwide, up from 290,000 in February 2020.
"The demand increased for financial services. People could
not go to the banks. Naturally the agency then also increased,"
said Adekunle.
However, a preference for cash is deeply entrenched in
Nigeria.
Enhancing Financial Innovation and Access (EFInA), a
research body that monitors financial inclusion in Nigeria, said
a survey it conducted in 2018 showed only 3.3% of Nigerian
adults reported having mobile money accounts.
But its chief executive officer, Ashley Immanuel, said there
had been a "steady increase in digital and mobile financial
services" in recent years.
Standing in an orange roadside kiosk featuring a sign with
bank logos, Oladimeji's thoughts have turned to offering more
services.
"I see myself developing into a microfinance business ...
helping people with finance, getting their daily savings," she
said.