Providing financial services to consumers at the base of the pyramid in Nigeria

This study assesses challenges of financial service providers, specificallybanks, microfinance institutions, long term insurers and short term insurers, atthe base of the pyramid with respect to affordability, acceptability, availabilityand awareness in Nigeria. This was done through a questionnaire posed tobase of the pyramid consumers in Nigeria.Loyalty to financial service providers was examined to determine what thedrivers of loyalty are in the base of the pyramid market. These drivers differ perfinancial service and need to be viewed separately by each of the industrieswithin the financial services sector.It was found that most base of the pyramid consumers do not participate infinancial services due to acceptability, showing that the products and servicesprovided by these institutions are not meeting the needs of the base of thepyramid consumers. Affordability also plays a role in base of the pyramidconsumers not taking out financial services products. This indicates thatfinancial services providers need to come up with new products and serviceswith appropriate pricing models in order to service this market.Other factors, such as trust, also play a role in the financial services sector inbase of the pyramid consumers in Nigeria. Copyright © 2009 University of Pretoria. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of Pretoria. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the University of Pretoria. Please cite as follows: Robertson, N 2009, Providing financial services to consumers at the base of the pyramid in Nigeria, MBA dissertation, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, viewed yymmdd < http://upetd.up.ac.za/thesis/available/etd-05072010-152223/ > G10/361/ag