Nigeria: Everyone with Internet Subscription Can Have a Bank Account

The informal economy in Nigeria is estimated to account for 65% of Nigeria's rebased GDP, according to the IMF.

The National Bureau of Statistics' 2015 GDP report said that the informal sector’s share of the Nigerian economy was about 41.1%.

Nigeria’s GDP as at the end of 2015 was about N94.1 trillion out of which N38.7 trillion was from the informal and another N55.3 trillion formal.

Currently, Nigeria’s informal economy as a percentage of GDP is among the highest in the world.

Majority of the Nigerians in the informal sector have no bank accounts.
Nigerian banks had 4.6 branches per 100,000 Nigerian adults as at 2015, compared to the global average of 12.6 branches.
Only 30 million bank accounts were recorded in the BVN registration exercise.

Millions of Nigerians without bank accounts are illiterates who cannot read and write, but they have GSM phones to make calls and speak to people and view videos on the internet. And they are among the largest contributors to the informal sector. Especially the thousands of street traders in Lagos, including the fish sellers in the Makoko waterfront community on Lagos mainland who sell at their popular Makoko fish market and others selling on the streets of Lagos.

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Everyone in the informal sector can have a bank account if Nigerian banks can use mobile banking applications to reach the population of over 140 million users of mobile phones, including the more than 93 million Nigeruans having internet subscriptions.
Everyone with internet subscription can have a bank account.