By Timothy Oyomare
Despite the huge population of Nigeria with its attendant commercial advantage, coupled with its large economy, Nigeria is still largely under- banked, as majority of Nigerians carry out their financial transactions outside the banking industry.
The Group Chief Executive Officer of the Guaranty Trust Bank GTBank) Plc, Mr. Segun Agbaje who made this disclosure recently in Lagos, said that Nigeria with a population of about 190 million, still has less than 35 million people who engage in banking transactions, while majority of about 150 do not patronize the banking industry.
“We are only banking 33/34 million people in a country that has about 190 million people. It is by no means mature. So there is still a lot of upside. This was why GTBank evolved a leading innovation and disruption platform in the financial services market space through products like the USSD (737), Quick Credit for customers, GTWorld, GTMobile and a few others”, he said.
Agbaje, said that despite this development, he was optimistic about Nigeria, as he believes that through sustained awareness creation, the baking culture will mature and this will translate into the growth of the banking industry in no distant future, saying “The outlook for the Nigerian banking industry is always going to be up, until we reach a mature stage.”
Most Nigerians still believe in the traditional form of keeping their money at home or other safe places as they do not believe that their money is safe with the bank. A lot of Nigerians were jolted after the experience of the late 1990s when a lot of banks went underground as a result of distress, with several Nigerians losing their deposits.