In a meeting with Bain, representatives from the Central Bank of Nigeria, NEEDS, and Oxfam express concern about how challenging it will be to offer basic financial products to the Nigerian rural population. (20 points)

One of the representatives from the Central Bank of Nigeria mentions that these are regions where people are poorly educated and unfamiliar with banking products, and where there is a high degree of crime and fraud. He asks for the Bain team’s thoughts about how the bank could sell these services effectively to this rural population given the challenges? Please answer the question for Bain Consulting talking about lack of education, banking products, and crime.

Bain & Company
Bain & Company is an American management consultancy headquartered in Boston,
Massachusetts. The firm provides advice to public, private, and non-profit organizations. Bain
operates as a global business consulting firm. It offers consulting services on the issues of change
management, corporate strategy, cost and supply chain management, growth strategy,
information technology, mergers and acquisitions, organization, performance improvement,
private equity, and revenue enhancement.
Oxfam Client goal
The Oxfam International is a private organization with immense visions; one of its goals is to
lessen extreme poverty worldwide. In this case study, Oxfam International asked Bain &
Company to analyze and propose a recommendation regarding a basic financial-services offering
for inhabitants of rural communities in Nigeria.
Oxfam Organization
Oxfam is a confederation of 20 independent charitable organizations focusing on the alleviation
of global poverty, founded in 1942 and led by Oxfam International. Oxfam is named after the
“Oxford Committee for Famine Relief” and is headquartered in Nairobi, Kenya. It is a major
nonprofit group with an extensive collection of operations. Oxfam is a global movement of
people who are fighting inequality to beat poverty together. Oxfam tackles the inequalities that
make and keep people poor. They save and protect lives in times of crisis, work with people to
build resilience and rebuild their livelihoods and, because Oxfam wants lasting solutions, they
campaign for genuine, durable change.
Nigeria Facts
 The current population of Nigeria is 206,578,296 as of Wednesday, August 5, 2020, based on
Worldometer elaboration of the latest United Nations data.
 Nigeria 2050 population is forecasted at over 400 million people ranking number 3 in the list
of countries (and dependencies) by population according to UN data.
 Currently, Nigeria ranks number 7 in the list of countries (and dependencies) by population.

 The population density in Nigeria is 226 per Km2 (586 people per mi2).
 The total land area is 910,770 Km2 (351,650 sq. miles)
 52.0 % of the population is urban (107,112,526 people in 2020)
 The median age in Nigeria is 18.1 years.
 The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), in a report about poverty and inequality from
September 2018 to October 2019, said 40% of people in the continent’s most populous
country lived below its poverty line of 137,430 naira ($381.75) per year. It said that
represents 82.9 million people.
 The Nigerian statistics office said 52% of people in rural areas live in poverty.
 A total of nearly 8 million Nigerians need humanitarian assistance across Borno and two
neighboring states affected by the insurgency, according to the United Nations. It said the
highest poverty levels were in the northwestern state of Sokoto, where 87.7% of people lived
under the poverty line.
 When it comes to the number of paved roads in Nigeria, statistics do not look too good. The
main idea is that the performance of the Nigerian roads sector has not been satisfactory.
There is an enormous potential for growth and development, but figures do not look too
good. It is important to know that road transportation in Nigeria controls over 95% of all
surface transportation. Believe it or not, only 80% of federal roads in Nigeria are
partially paved. Keep in mind that the entire roads in the country are just a bit less than
200,000km of Federal, State and local road. Believe it or not, just about 50,000km is paved.
 This indicator also plays an important role in calculating the cost of living in Nigeria. Public
transportation in Nigeria is usually expensive in developed cities and cheaper in rural areas.
However, public transportation in rural areas as a percentage of average monthly income is
greater in rural areas than in developed cities.
 At any point in the country, cost of transportation depends on the change in oil prices and
exchange rate.
 Only 40 million Nigerians, 25 percent of the population, have a bank account. There are over
97 million bank accounts, but the number of unique bank account holders is a fraction of that
number. Going by the number of bank verification numbers (BVNs), the number of accounts
per Nigerian bank account owner is nearly three. Nigerians have major banking trust issues.
 The Central Bank of Nigeria (CNB) has indigenous control and oversees all parts of the
banking system in Nigeria. The first banking legislation in the country: the banking
ordinance of 1952 to ensure orderly commercial banking. Today Nigeria has one of the most
advanced financial sectors in Africa, with most of its commercial banks having branches in
other countries. The CNB has achieved financial system stability, low inflation, exchange
rate stability, an efficient payment system, and a consistent monetary policy in the last couple
of years. The vision for the Central Bank of Nigeria is to create a people-centered Central
Bank by "delivering price and financial system stability and promoting sustainable economic
development''
 The state government level of the Nigerian government structure is divided into 36 states and
1 territory.
 NEEDS Offices are a part of the offices located in each Nigerian State for implementation of
the National Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy (NEEDS I & II). Urban
areas have more offices than states in rural areas. There are 110 total NEEDS Offices in

Nigeria. There is at least one NEEDS Office in each of the 36 Nigerian states. There are 9
NEEDS Offices in the former capital city, Lagos. Lagos has a population over 9 million and
is a major financial center for all of Africa and is the economic hub of Nigeria. Abuja is the
current capital of Nigeria and its’ population is one-eighth the size of Lagos.
Bain Summary Description of Nigeria Situation
The majority of Nigeria’s rural inhabitants are relatively poor, relying in part on government
benefits for their livelihood. As they tend not to have bank accounts, they usually collect
government benefits in cash from a limited number of state-bank branches. These branches are
often a long way from where the recipients live, so it can take a lot of time and effort for them to
collect their benefits. In addition, traveling to the branches can sometimes expose benefit
recipients to crime along the way.
However, it should be noted that banks that want to expand effectively cannot do so by
neglecting the aspect of rural banking.
A lot of banks are beginning to realize this and therefore are putting much of their outreach to
rural areas. Rural banking in Nigeria still has a long way to go as a lot of rural dwellers cannot
bank if they do not cover certain transportation costs in the process of going to the banks.
This point can be generalized: till date virtually all federal government initiatives targeted at
improving the lives of rural dwellers have failed due to poor planning, corruption and avarice by
government officials and their collaborators. Therefore, it is not surprising that the countryside
nationwide has remained rustic and undeveloped all these years in spite-of rural development
programs launched with fanfare by different administrations in the country.
The Nigerian government also owns and operates a chain of offices throughout Nigeria, called
NEEDS, which provide basic food, clothes, and other essential goods to the rural population.
These offices are supplied via a network of central and regional warehouses and several thousand
delivery trucks.
Nigeria Vision 20: 2028
The Nigeria Vision 20: 2028 is a perspective plan; an economic business plan intended to make
Nigeria one of the top 20 economies by 2020, with a growth target of not less than $900 billion
in GDP and a per capita of not less than $4,000 per annum. The four Pillars of the NV 20:2028
are i) guaranteeing the well-being and productivity of the people, ii) optimizing the key sources
of economic growth iii) fostering sustainable social and economic development and iv)
improving essential services to rural communities.

NV 20:2028 is Nigeria's second attempt at driving the attainment of her national aspirations
using long-term perspective plan. In addition to the first perspective plan (Vision 2010), several
strategic planning efforts have been undertaken by the Federal Government in recent years.
These efforts include the Poverty Strategy Reduction Papers (PSRPs), the National Economic
Empowerment and Development Strategy (NEEDS I & II), Nigeria's Strategy for attaining the
Millennium Development Goals, and the Seven Point Agenda.
Bain Definition of Nigeria Study
Bain has been asked to investigate and assess the possibility of using the Nigerian NEEDS
Office network to provide a basic set of financial services to supplement the limited number of
commercial-bank branches in rural states. The offer would start with dispensing government-
benefit payments and move progressively to include savings accounts, bill payment, insurance,
credit, and other financial products. Bain will answer the question: would Bain recommend
Oxfam providing money to support Nigeria improving rural financial services?
Helpful hints for Students About Case Study Success
 Write down important factual information.
 Re-read any point that is not clear to you.
 At the end of every page, double-check to make sure you understand each of the major
points covered on that page, before going on to the next page.
 Base your responses only using factual information presented in the case.
 Take time to organize your thoughts and arranging your notes before answering. This will
help show your instructor that you have a logical approach and can think in an organized
way, regardless of the “accuracy” of the outcome.
 Develop an overall approach to answer each question before diving into details.

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