Within the quiet village of Temidire, nestled throughout the Ibarapa East Native Authorities Space of Oyo State, cellphones are little greater than ornamental objects.
The one community sign, when it exhibits up, is on the mercy of the wind, flickering weakly because of the lengthy distance from the closest base station.
For residents, making a name or receiving a textual content requires endurance, luck, and sometimes a visit to increased floor.
However it’s not simply the locals feeling the pinch. Each week, consumers from throughout Oyo State flock to Temidire’s bustling market to buy contemporary farm produce.
But regardless of the regular stream of holiday makers, one factor stays elusive: cellular connectivity. Even metropolis dwellers, used to the convenience of on the spot transfers and cellular funds, are pressured to hold money, as community service within the space is both non-existent or frustratingly erratic, relying on one’s supplier.
For 35-year-old Alabi Oduwole, a farmer and resident of the village, his bed room stays his bank as a result of he couldn’t afford touring for about 25 kilometers to the closest city that has two business bank branches simply to deposit cash and having to embark on the identical journey when he wants the cash.
“If I can obtain and ship cash on my telephone, I might be glad. However for now, that isn’t potential. Solely the Airtel community works right here, and the service isn’t secure,” he lamented.
Temidire’s state of affairs is a mirrored image of a wider problem going through many rural communities in Nigeria, the place the rise of cellular banking and digital finance has not but reached the individuals who want it most.
Cell cash booms, however solely in cities
Regardless of the unsavoury expertise of rural dwellers, cellular cash is booming in Nigeria, albeit solely in city areas.
Based on knowledge launched by the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement Programs (NIBSS), cellular cash operators within the nation processed transactions valued at N71.5 trillion in 2024.
This represents a 53.4% enhance in transactions throughout the cellular cash platforms when put next with the N46.6 trillion recorded within the full 12 months 2023.
- The amount of transactions throughout the fintech platforms additionally elevated by 23%, leaping from 3 billion in 2023 to three.9 billion in 2024, in line with NIBSS knowledge.
- PalmPay, one of many main cellular cash operators within the nation, lately introduced a major leap in its every day transaction quantity because it crossed the 15 million mark in Q1 2025.
- The CEO of Paga, Tayo Oviosu, additionally lately declared that whereas it took the cellular cash firm 91 months to course of its first 1.5 trillion Naira (Jan 2012 – July 2019), Paga processed greater than 1.5 trillion Naira in Might 2025 alone.
Mockingly, whereas Nigeria continues to have a good time the speedy progress of fintech and the shift towards a cashless economic system, locations like Temidire are left behind.
Monetary inclusion hole
Based on knowledge from the EFiNA Entry to Finance (A2F) 2023 report, 48% of grownup Nigerians lack a transactional or monetary account and are being excluded from the trendy digital monetary system.
“The possession and use of banking providers skews closely in the direction of the highest of the wealth distribution; within the extra developed districts and concrete areas, in addition to in the direction of males, these with higher instructional achievements, and the middle-aged contributing additional to inequalities throughout and inside these classes,” EFiNA acknowledged within the report.
The report additionally famous that there have been over 28 million Nigerians who’ve the Nationwide Identification Quantity (NIN) however shouldn’t have monetary accounts.
Rural connectivity problem
A significant component behind this exclusion is poor community protection. Based on a current report by the Worldwide Telecommunications Union (ITU), Nigeria and different African digital revolutions are being led by younger, city populations, whereas older adults and rural dwellers are being left behind.
- The urban-rural divide is very stark with Web utilization in cities reaching 57% in 2024, in comparison with simply 23% in rural areas – the widest hole amongst all ITU areas.
- This divide is compounded by unequal infrastructure funding. Whereas 4G and 5G rollouts prioritise city areas, rural areas stay caught with older and slower networks.
- The most recent knowledge launched by the Nigerian Communications Fee (NCC) exhibits that as of April 2025, 39.67% of connectivity within the nation had been nonetheless on 2G, and these are principally in rural areas.
- The ITU emphasised the necessity for focused insurance policies and infrastructure funding to shut this digital hole.
In the meantime, the Chief Government Officer of PalmPay, Mr. Chika Nwosu, stated the corporate has additionally realised the challenges posed by the connectivity hole, therefore, it lately launched Unstructured Supplementary Service Knowledge (USSD) to permit individuals in 2G areas to hold out monetary transactions.
“We’re conscious of this problem, and that was why we lately rolled out USSD so that individuals in areas with out 3G or 4G service can perform monetary transactions,” he instructed Nairametrics.
USSD performs a major function in growing monetary inclusion, particularly in rural areas the place a lot of individuals is probably not utilizing smartphones and conventional banking infrastructure could also be restricted. Nevertheless it turns into tougher for dwellers when the accessible service can be unstable as in Temidire.
Bridging the digital divide
Except for the difficulty of community protection, a tech knowledgeable and Founding father of Sigmanox NG, Ahmed Ogundimu, stated low literacy ranges and skepticism about digital monetary providers are amongst elements hindering cellular cash penetration in rural areas in Nigeria.
To resolve these challenges, Ogundimu advocates for extra funding in community infrastructure throughout rural communities. Based on him, cellular cash suppliers within the nation would additionally must increase their rural agent networks and supply extra localised and user-friendly providers.
As well as, he suggested operators to think about the need of promoting cellular cash merchandise within the native languages of the totally different communities they meant to function in.
“Authorities and non-governmental initiatives geared toward selling monetary literacy and digital inclusion needs to be organised to contribute to the gradual penetration of cellular cash providers in these areas.
“The Nigerian authorities may also play a key function in increasing monetary inclusion in rural areas by offering incentives to monetary establishments to ascertain and function branches in rural areas,” Ogundimu stated.
- For the Government in Residence on the Lagos Enterprise School, Mr. Olu Akanmu, to bridge the hole in Nigeria, the federal government must combine monetary inclusion into financial inclusion packages similar to agriculture and MSME commerce.
- He added that monetary providers suppliers will even have to extend their brokers’ presence, particularly in rural areas, to supply last-mile entry.
- Akanmu additionally emphasised improved community protection and availability of inexpensive telephones as vital elements in deepening entry to monetary providers in rural areas.
Will present authorities initiatives tackle the problem?
The Nigerian authorities has in current instances rolled out numerous initiatives to bridge the connectivity hole.
These embody Tasks BRIDGE and 774, Common Entry Undertaking, the Nationwide Broadband Alliance for Nigeria (NBAN), Development of 7000 and 1000 telecom towers, strengthening subsea cable methods, Cell Digital Community Operators (MVNOs), amongst others.
- Undertaking BRIDGE aimed to increase Nigeria’s fibre optic community by 90,000 km to enhance broadband penetration throughout the nation. The mission is predicted to start within the fourth quarter of 2025, supported by vital funding from the World Bank and the African Growth Bank.
- Undertaking 774 targeted on making certain that each native authorities secretariat in Nigeria advantages from high-speed connectivity, aiming to boost digital entry on the grassroots stage.
- FG’s common entry mission is geared toward connecting over 20 million Nigerians who at the moment lack entry to digital providers. This mission includes constructing 7,000 telecom towers in unserved and underserved areas. This might be carried out beneath a Public-Non-public Partnership (PPP) funding mannequin.
The Secretary of USPF, Yomi Arowosafe, revealed plans to construct a further 1000 BTS in rural communities. He stated USPF is predicted to finish deployment by 2030 in collaboration with improvement companions.
To make sure that bigger hinterland populations get connectivity, Arowosafe stated USPF will discover accessible choices for partnerships and collaborations with OEM producers to assist the utilization of end-user units in rural, unserved, and underserved communities via inexpensive cellular units.
Business analysts famous that whereas these initiatives are commendable and significant to addressing the connectivity challenges within the nation, their impacts can be depending on how the federal government manages the implementation.
This report is produced beneath the DPI Africa Journalism Fellowship Programme of the Media Foundation for West Africa and Co-Develop.
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