Economy
Only 28% of 80% Africans with Mobile Phones Have Bank Account
By Modupe Gbadeyanka
Efforts are being made by different bodies to deepen financial inclusion in Africa and bring the continent at par with other more civilised in the world.
Although over 80 percent of Africans have mobile phones, only around one quarter (28 percent) of them have bank account.
But mobile banking and e-wallets are helping to break the banking logjam, offering a range of alternative payment methods as well as lending and savings services. This has boosted the overall financial inclusion rate to 34 percent, and it is growing each day.
According to Ecobank, the leading independent pan-African banking group, Fintech is boosting financial inclusion across Africa.
The lender is a pioneer in Africa’s digital transformation and the main sponsor of the 2018 Africa Tech summit taking place today.
It is important to note that there are many barriers to wider use of new technology where a step change is needed in attitudes and approaches towards innovation.
Ecobank’s work with e-commerce, small business, and consumers – through their mobile banking app and other e-products – is helping organisations and individuals to overcome these barriers and stimulate wider usage.
Head of the UK representative office of Ecobank and Group Research, Dr Edward George, will give a keynote address at the opening of the summit where he will look at the acceleration of disruptive technology in Africa – technological innovations that are causing a step change in the way we do business and transact – and describe some of the latest banking & tech innovations that are helping individuals and businesses to meet the challenges like using mobile and customer data to create individualised credit scores, unlocking the potential for mobile lending and micro-insurance.
Others are a key obstacle for access to new services is poor Internet access, and the high cost of downloading data: BluPoint & BRCK (Moja) are two companies looking to provide free (or near free) access to the Internet for ordinary Africans; some innovators have focused on clearing a single blockage in the system, such as TagPay (using encrypted sound to make mobile payments over any mobile phone) and ZirooPay (using encrypted SSDN to make credit card payments over the mobile network when the Internet is down).
“Nearly all the growth in financial inclusion since 2011 has been due to mobile banking services,” said Dr George. “With around 100 million users of e-wallets, Africans account for around half (57.6%) of all mobile wallets in the world.”
“However, people are often stuck in their ways – whether a market trader or top executive – and the challenge is to change the mind set and open them up to the opportunities of digital.
“Disruptive technology is about recognising these challenges and seeing technology as an enabler, not a panacea, and by adapting innovations to the reality on the ground. That is what we are doing at Ecobank to help businesses and individuals take the digital leapfrog,” Dr George added.
The Africa Tech summit takes place on 14 and 15 February in Kigali, Rwanda. It will explore the latest trends in digital technology with some 250 key African and international tech leaders from across the continent.
Other speakers will include Alice Kilonzo Zulu, Managing Director of Ecobank Rwanda, who will talk about Ecobank e-commerce and how cashless innovations are spurring SME growth, and Nshuti Mbabazi, Vice President, Push Payments at Ecobank, who will look at how Ecobank’s digital strategy is helping deliver the cashless society in Africa.
By Aduragbemi Omiyale
The total issued and fully paid-up shares of Eterna Plc are almost 2.2 billion after the listing of additional shares of the company on the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited this week.
Precisely on Wednesday, an additional 882,064,158 ordinary shares of the organisation were listed on Customs Street, a regulatory notice confirmed.
These extra stocks were from the rights issue of the firm, issued to shareholders at N22.00 per unit on the basis of three new ordinary stocks for every existing four ordinary stocks held as at the close of business on Thursday, November 27, 2025.
Eterna wanted to sell a total of 978,108,485 units, but investors only picked 882,064,158, indicating a subscription rate of 90.18 per cent.
At midweek, the new equities were brought to the stock exchange for listing, increasing the total issued and fully paid-up shares of the company from 1,304,144,647 units to 2,186,208,805 units.
“Trading licence holders are hereby notified that an additional 882,064,158 ordinary shares of 50 Kobo each of Eterna Plc were on Wednesday, May 20, 2026, listed on the daily official list of NGX.
“The additional shares arose from the company’s rights issue of 978,108,485 ordinary shares of 50 Kobo each at N22.00 per share on the basis of three new ordinary shares for every existing four ordinary shares held as at the close of business on Thursday, November 27, 2025.
“With the listing of the additional 882,064,158 ordinary shares, the total issued and fully paid-up shares of Eterna Plc have now increased from 1,304,144,647 to 2,186,208,805 ordinary shares of 50 Kobo each,” the notice signed by the Head of Issuer Regulation Department at NGX RegCo Limited, Mr Godstime Iwenekhai, stated.
By Adedapo Adesanya
Five securities ended on the gainers’ table of the NASD Over-the-Counter (OTC) Securities Exchange on Thursday, May 21, lifting the platform by 1.71 per cent at the close of business.
The gains recorded by the quintet increased the market capitalisation of the NASD exchange by N42.64 billion to N2.538 trillion from N2.495 trillion, and raised the NASD Unlisted Security Index (NSI) by 71.28 points to 4,242.47 points from the 4,171.19 points reported on Wednesday.
The gainers were led by FrieslandCampina Wamco Plc, which chalked up N13.11 to sell N164.06 per unit versus N150.95 per unit, Central Securities and Clearing System (CSCS) Plc added N2.39 to trade at N74.20 per share versus N71.81 per share, 11 Plc improved by N22.11 to N244.53 per unit from N243.21 per unit, Food Concepts Plc rose by 23 Kobo to N2.58 per share from N2.35 per share, and Geo-Fluids Plc grew by 6 Kobo to N3.00 per unit from N2.94 per unit.
There were three price losers yesterday, led by Nitrox Industrial Gases Plc, which gave away N1.56 to sell at N25.44 per share compared with the previous day’s N27.00 per share, Afriland Properties Plc lost 95 Kobo to close at N15.95 per unit versus N16.90 per unit, and Industrial and General Insurance (IGI) Plc depreciated by 1 Kobo to 60 Kobo per share from 61 Kobo per share.
The volume of securities bought and sold by investors increased by 40.5 per cent during the session to 3.2 million units from 2.3 million units, and the number of deals soared by 23.5 per cent to 42 deals from 34 deals, while the value of securities fell by 71.6 per cent to N94.8 million from N334.2 million.
Great Nigeria Insurance (GNI) Plc remained the most active stock by value on a year-to-date basis, with 3.4 billion units valued at N8.4 billion, followed by Infrastructure Credit Guarantee (Infracredit) Plc with 2.3 billion units worth N6.5 billion, and CSCS Plc with 61.1 million units exchanged for N4.1 billion.
GNI Plc also finished as the most traded stock by volume on a year-to-date basis, with 3.4 billion units worth N8.4 billion, followed by Infracredit Plc with 2.3 billion units sold for N6.5 billion, and Resourcery Plc with 1.1 billion units traded for N415.7 million.
By Adedapo Adesanya
The exchange rate of the Naira to the Dollar ended at N1,372.31/$1 in the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEX) on Thursday, May 21, indicating an appreciation of N1.03 or 0.07 per cent against the United States Dollar. In the preceding session, the rate closed at N1,373.34/$1, according to data from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
The Nigerian currency further improved its value against the Euro in the same market segment yesterday by N1.75 to settle at N1,590.78/€1 compared with midweek’s value of N1,592.53/€1, but depreciated against the Pound Sterling by 26 Kobo, closing at N1,840.26/£1, in contrast to Wednesday’s rate of N1,840.00/£1.
In the black market and at the GTBank forex counter, the Nigerian Naira maintained stability against the US Dollar at N1,390/$1 and N1,379/$1, respectively.
It was gathered that interbank FX liquidity turnover for the session was $116.043 million across 105 deals, higher than the $68.020 million achieved a day earlier.
The central bank will continue with its current policy direction to sustain the fight against inflation and stabilise the exchange rate, with Governor Yemi Cardoso noting earlier this week that exchange rate stability remained the centrepiece of the apex bank’s policy toolkit.
The central banker said the structure of Nigeria’s foreign exchange market has changed significantly under the ongoing reforms introduced by the apex bank, adding that increased market liquidity has reduced the need for heavy intervention by the CBN.
According to him, daily foreign exchange market turnover has risen sharply from about $100 million when the current administration took office to roughly $550 million presently, with transactions occasionally climbing to as high as $1 billion in a single day.
He said the apex bank expects turnover to consistently hit the $1 billion mark in the future as more reforms take effect.
Meanwhile, the cryptocurrency market was mixed during the session, as liquidations were split between longs and shorts and did not reflect a one-sided capitulation. Market analysts noted that rising long-term US Treasury yields and geopolitical tensions, particularly around US-Iran relations and oil prices, are seen as the main headwinds.
TRON (TRX) rose by 1.3 per cent to $0.3647, Binance Coin (BNB) jumped 0.7 per cent to $655.16, Cardano (ADA) added 0.7 per cent to trade at $0.2495, and Solana (SOL) appreciated by 0.4 per cent to $86.55.
However, Ripple (XRP) declined by 0.9 per cent to $1.35, Bitcoin (BTC) slid by 0.5 per cent to $77,227.47, Ethereum (ETH) went down by 0.3 per cent to $2,121.80, and Dogecoin (DOGE) slipped by 0.1 per cent to $0.1049, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and the US Dollar Coin (USDC) traded flat at $1.00 each.
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