PROSPECTS AND CHALLENGES OF MOBILE BANKING IN NIGERIA
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PROSPECTS AND CHALLENGES OF MOBILE BANKING IN NIGERIA
ABSTRACT
Today, the advancement of mobile technologies has given financial service providers the possibility to introduce new financial innovations. Mobile banking, often known as m-banking, is one of the emerging financial innovations presented by financial institutions.
This study assesses customer perceptions of m-banking uptake or launch in Nigeria. Customers of banks were given questionnaires to get their thoughts on m-Banking. For this study, a random sample of 90 customers was used, and statistical analysis was performed using SPSS software.
Customers’ perceptions were determined to be overwhelmingly favourable. The most valued features were the ubiquity and the account summary. Rapid reaction to market changes, which is frequently cited as one of the most appealing features of mobile banking, was not well received.
Several factors, including technical and security standards, regulatory and supervisory issues, and business and legal issues, were identified as the key barriers to mobile banking deployment in Nigeria.
The characteristics that would improve mobile banking deployment in Nigeria were discovered to be connectivity, a secure communication platform, and an encrypted messaging system.
CHAPTER ONE: THE OPPORTUNITIES AND DIFFICULTIES OF MOBILE BANKING IN NIGERIA
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background Of The Study
Technological advancements, particularly in the fields of telecommunications and information technology, are transforming the way businesses operate.
Electronic commerce is now regarded to hold the promise of a new business revolution by providing a low-cost and direct means of exchanging information and selling or buying goods and services.
This market transformation has triggered a revolution in the banking sector to provide a payment system that is suitable with the demands of the electronic marketplace (Journal of Internet Banking and Commerce, 2008).
In accordance with worldwide trends, the banking industry in Nigeria has undergone significant changes. Since the country’s independence in 1960. The progressive deregulation of the financial industry, which began in 1989, was the first step in the evolutionary process.
The installation of Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) in the 1990s was regarded as the first and most obvious piece of evidence of growing electronic banking in Nigeria (Abor, 2008).
Following that, Telebanking, PC-banking, and Internet-banking were introduced. Mobile banking (M- banking) looks to be the next logical step in this evolutionary process.
In a number of developing nations, the use of a mobile phone to execute payment and banking transactions (M- banking) is in its early stages.
Because mobile banking makes use of the existing rapidly increasing mobile phone infrastructure, it has the potential to be quickly and economically adopted to increase access to financial services among the unbanked.
Access to financial services is one of the factors required to combat poverty (Otabil, 2008). Poverty alleviation is at the heart of the majority of donor-supported programmes in Africa,
and strengthening banking services through technology-driven efforts could be part of the pro-poor policies required to transform the poor’s situation. According to a study conducted by Bankable Frontier Associates (2006), mobile banking is crucial to poverty alleviation in emerging countries.
Mobile banking is likely to appeal even more in Asian countries such as China, Bangladesh, Indonesia, and the Philippines, where mobile infrastructure is comparatively better than fixed-line infrastructure, and in European countries where mobile phone penetration is very high (at least 80% of consumers use a mobile phone) (Wikipedia, 2008).
This creates enormous opportunities for financial institutions interested in providing value-added services. With mobile technology, banks can provide a wide range of services to their consumers, such as financial transfers while travelling, online stock price updates, and even stock trading when stopped in traffic.
Mobile banking will be the “killer application” for the next generation of mobile technology, according to the German mobile operator Mobilcom (Wikipedia, 2008).
Banks throughout the world have committed billions of dollars in the last four years to develop comprehensive Internet banking capabilities (Wikipedia, 2008).
As the trend shifts to mobile banking, Chief Information Officers (CIOs) and Chief Technical Officers (CTOs) of these institutions face a challenge in determining how to maximise their investments in internet banking and deliver mobile banking in the least amount of time.
However, various obstacles, such as a lack of an effective regulatory framework and mobile transaction security, tend to stymie the further development of this advanced mobile banking application.
Because of the difficulties addressed in this section and the relevance of mobile banking, it is critical that a research be conducted to determine the prospects and obstacles of mobile banking in a developing country such as Nigeria.
1.2 Statement of the Problem
financial is a centuries-old industry, but in a country like Nigeria, a huge section of the population does not have a bank account or any formal financial relationship, such as getting credit-loans or overdrafts from any bank. This proportion is expected to be greater than 80% of the population (Otabil, 2008).
However, technology, as one of the driving forces behind globalisation, has boosted mobile phone usage to record highs in Nigeria. Mobile phone users now outnumber bank account holders in the country (Otabil, 2008).
As a result, the link between telecom providers and banks might lower transaction costs and improve customer experience for both industries. Customers would also benefit from efficient and effective services provided by telecommunications and banking organisations.
Because of the risk of criminality in many underdeveloped nations, poor individuals pay a significant price for holding cash (Bankable Frontier Associates, 2006). As a result, appropriate financial services enable poor people to access usefully large lump sums of money,
which may either enable a pathway out of poverty through investment in income-generating activities (such as microenterprises) or asset creation (such as housing) or may reduce vulnerability to cashflow, for example, as a result of illness or climate conditions; mobile banking thus plays a significant role in this area.
As poor people in many countries are forced to rely on informal financial services, which may be unsafe, or fringe formal financial products, which may be expensive as well as unsafe, it is critical that banks improve mobile banking in these countries so that customers can make informed financial decisions.
In other words, their absence from formal financial services has economic and social consequences that may worsen their poverty (Otabil, 2008). According to Nonor (2009), most banks in Nigeria currently use very inventive and cutting-edge technologies to provide access to their consumers.
Mobile banking, also known as M-Banking, SMS financial, and so on, is one such innovation that is quickly taking on with many Nigerians in the financial sector.
Managers believe that, while service education is limited across the country, many more of their clients may be prepared to abandon the traditional banking method of queuing in banking halls in order to take advantage of the ease of mobile banking services.
It is therefore critical that a study be conducted to determine the prospects and challenges of mobile banking, as it has the potential to improve Nigerians’ socioeconomic development.
1.3 Significance of the Research
This study has several implications. To begin with, increased information and communication technology (ICT) might assist Nigeria in leapfrogging development obstacles, and mobile banking via ICT could soon reflect overall economic improvement among individuals through lower transaction costs.
Second, it is believed that the findings of this study will help to expand current knowledge of mobile banking technology. Furthermore, the study will provide a greater understanding of what is required for bank clients to accept this growing technology, allowing for improvements in banking strategies to attract future mobile banking users.
1.4 Objectives of The Study
The study’s objectives were to:
(1) Determine the perceived benefits and drawbacks of mobile banking among clients.
(2) learn about future mobile banking development expectations.
(3) highlight obstacles to its implementation in Nigeria.
(4) Determine variables that could improve its implementation in Nigeria.
1.5 Scope of The Study
For the sake of brevity, this study refers to all suppliers of banking and financial services as banks and makes no distinction between credit institutions and financial services institutions. As a result, all of these institutions’ consumers were targeted.
1.6 Structure of The Study
This research is divided into five major chapters. The first chapter covered the topic’s introduction, problem statement, and significance of the study. Furthermore, the study’s objectives and limitations were discussed. The second chapter provided a survey of pertinent literature on the subject.
This chapter focused on definitions, mobile banking services, various mediums used, and main issues of mobile banking. The methodology for the investigation was presented in Chapter three. It detailed the number of participants as well as their characteristics.
Schedules for tests, scales, interviews, or questionnaires, as well as how the data was analysed. The fourth chapter examines the information gathered. Chapter five addressed the study’s conclusion, a summary, and advice for banks considering offering mobile banking.
1.7 Limitations
Students at the University of Uyo provided data for this study. This is due to the high expenses and limited resources available for gathering data from the general populace.
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