ABSTRACT
Two major visible revolutions that have very directly changed the ways and manners business was conducted in Africa over the last one and a half decade are the growth in the popularity of electronic payment (via automated teller machines [ATM]) and the rapid explosion in mobile phone penetration. It is interesting to note that before the year 2000, ATM terminals, for instance, were nonexistent in most parts of the subSaharan Africa (SSA). Today, this channel of bank service delivery has been fully integrated into the economic and social fabrics of the entire African society. Unlike the era when ATM card ownership was restricted
16.1 Introduction: Emergence and growth of mobile phone and automated teller machine penetration in Africa ...................... 315
16.2 Nature and benefits of ATM and mobile phone interface ...............318 16.2.1 Pluralism argument .................................................................. 319 16.2.2 Business efficiency argument.................................................. 320 16.2.3 Economic development argument.......................................... 320
16.3 Pre-e-banking environment in Nigeria ............................................. 322 16.4 Emergence of ICT-based banking regime in Nigeria ...................... 326 16.5 ATM operational environment in Nigeria ........................................ 331 16.6 Statistical tests of the relationship between ATM and mobile
phone penetration rates ....................................................................... 335 16.7 Conclusion ............................................................................................. 339 References ........................................................................................................ 340
to high-end bank customers, now, in most parts of the continent, having a bank account overwhelmingly qualifies an individual to be issued with an ATM card. Similarly, before the 1990s, telephone services and telephone line ownership was an exclusive preserve of rich individuals and businesses in Africa. Then, only fixed landline telephones were in existence; and the average telephone penetration rate in the SSA region was just 0.86 per 100 persons in 1985, compared with 1.48 and 1.57 per 100 persons in 2000 and 2005, respectively (based on the data from World Development Indicators). The recorded increase was largely due to the emergence and increase in the popularity of the mobile telephone system in most parts of the continent. The erstwhile barrier against telephone ownership and access has consequently been dismantled-thus making mobile phone emergence an effective tool for bridging the digital divide between the rich and the poor (Helton, 2012).
