Agent-Led Innovation: Building on Trusted Intermediaries for Financial Inclusion 

In the bustling markets of Anambra, the roadside kiosks of Kano, and the remote villages of the Middle Belt, a quiet revolution is unfolding. It isn’t taking place on high-end smartphones or inside air-conditioned bank branches. Instead, millions of small business owners are driving this innovation. They are the “POS men and women” who have become one of the most important pillars of Nigeria’s financial infrastructure. 

For millions of Nigerians, these agents represent the first real point of contact with the formal financial system. Beyond processing withdrawals, deposits, and transfers, they build trust, offer guidance, resolve transaction issues, and help customers navigate digital financial platforms. In communities where proximity, personal relationships, and cultural understanding matter, agents translate financial innovation into everyday lived experiences. 

Over time, these agents have evolved from simple “human ATMs” into multi-service community hubs. Initially recruited to solve the last-mile cash challenge, they quickly leveraged customer trust to expand into services such as utility payments, digital transaction support, and agricultural input payments. Events like the 2023 Nigerian cash shortage further reinforced their role, with many agents acting as informal customer service points, helping communities resolve failed transactions and navigate digital financial services. 

Financial inclusion in Nigeria rose to 74% in 2023, up from 68% in 2020, according to the EFInA Access to Financial Services in Nigeria 2023 Survey. Much of this progress was driven by non-bank financial services, underscoring an important lesson: financial inclusion is not only about technology or app downloads. It is about accessibility, trust, and human support. By empowering these local intermediaries, Nigeria is extending financial services to people who have long been excluded, ensuring that innovation reaches every corner of the country. Agents are not simply facilitators of transactions; they are the human infrastructure powering a more inclusive and resilient financial system. 

The Current Reality 

Despite their critical role in expanding financial access, many agents operate under significant constraints. They face heavy operational risks and thin profit margins, often bearing the brunt of fraud with limited avenues for recourse. Platform-related disputes can freeze funds, disrupting cash flow and daily operations. Most agents lack formal employment protections and safety nets, even while handling large volumes of cash. Limited access to working capital and liquidity further restricts their ability to meet customer demand, and weak dispute-resolution mechanisms with service providers leave them exposed to financial shocks. 

In Nigeria, agent-platform relationships can sometimes feel imbalanced rather than fully collaborative partnerships. Some agents claim that they shoulder most costs and risks, including security, liquidity management, and fraud losses, while platforms have multiple, diversified revenue streams, making them far more financially resilient. This imbalance constrains agents’ earning potential and further threatens the sustainability of agent networks. High operational risks and low margins make the role financially precarious, hindering broader financial inclusion efforts that could have been converted to inclusion through agents. When the costs outweigh the benefits, agents may be unable or unwilling to serve vulnerable communities, limiting access for millions of unbanked and under-banked Nigerians. 

Recognising these vulnerabilities, the Central Bank of Nigeria’s new guidelines, effective April 1, 2026, introduced important protections for agents, including mandatory training, written agreements, and defined dispute resolution timelines. While these measures provide essential safeguards and clarity, regulations alone are unlikely to transform the fundamental relationship between agents and their principals. A genuine shift from arrangements where most of the economic value created by the agents flows upwards to a true partnership between agents and platforms will require more balanced value sharing, with transparent commissions, timely settlements, and opportunities for agents to earn beyond basic transactions, alongside stronger risk-sharing and support so agents are not left to bear the bulk of operational and financial risks.  

The Untapped Potential: Beyond Transaction Points 

1. Community Financial Advisors: With proper training and aligned incentives, agents could move beyond cash handling to provide basic financial guidance: help customers understand financial products, select the most suitable options, assist in dispute logging, and follow up. This positions the agent as a trusted advisor in their communities, strengthening relationships and promoting responsible financial behaviour. 

1. Last-Mile Credit Assessment: Agents possess deep, granular knowledge of their communities, including who has high social capital, and to some extent, who is creditworthy, local economic dynamics/nuances, and seasonal income patterns.  Integrating this intelligence into credit evaluation can help lenders improve scoring accuracy, better manage default risk, and extend credit to underserved individuals and small businesses, including those in self-organising groups. However, relying on agent knowledge alone is insufficient, particularly in more diluted or fragmented social environments where there is limited interaction or visibility into each other’s financial behaviour, making such insights less reliable for credit decisioning. As such, this approach should be complemented with stronger data systems and alternative verification methods to ensure robustness and reduce bias.   

1. Distribution Channel for Diverse Products: Agents could evolve into multi-service financial hubs. Beyond cash-in and cash-out services, they have the potential to distribute insurance, facilitate remittances, government transfers and other resilience-building financial services. By leveraging agent networks, financial service providers can bring a wider range of services closer to underserved communities, creating convenient one-stop access points for financial services. 

1. Local Market Intelligence Providers: Through daily interactions, agents gain firsthand knowledge of their communities, especially on price trends, seasonal demand shifts, informal sector dynamics, and evolving customer needs. With strong privacy protections and fair compensation, this intelligence can help financial services and value-added service (VAS) providers optimise product pricing, inventory financing, localised marketing, and overall product design. Agents can become strategic partners in data-driven financial innovation, rather than merely transaction conduits. 

1. Financial and Digital Inclusion Catalysts: Agents are more than service points; they are frontline champions of inclusion. They actively onboard the unbanked and under-banked, often in hard-to-reach communities, and can provide digital literacy training, helping customers use mobile wallets, apps, and digital payments securely. With proper support, training, and incentives, agents can bridge both financial and digital divides, accelerating access to formal financial services and empowering millions of Nigerians to participate fully in the digital economy. 

1. Community Resilience Facilitators: Agents could act as first responders during economic shocks (e.g., floods, crop failures) by helping coordinate relief payments, micro-insurance claims, or emergency cash transfers, provided platforms offer the right support and clear protocols. 

Agent-Led Innovation Actually Requires: 

1. Capacity Building: Ongoing training in financial products, customer service, fraud detection, and business management is essential. Certification programs and peer-learning networks provide recognition, professional development pathways, and opportunities for knowledge sharing. Digital tools for inventory, reconciliation, and customer tracking enhance efficiency and reduce errors. 

1. Infrastructure and Support: Reliable technology, accessible technical support, and robust security (safe locations, surveillance, emergency protocols) are critical. Affordable working capital and liquidity facilities allow agents to meet customer demand, while insurance or guarantee schemes protect against fraud. Connectivity solutions are vital in low-network areas. 

1. Voice and Agency: Agents must have meaningful influence over decisions affecting their work. Feedback mechanisms should shape product design and policies, while representation in industry bodies (e.g., SANEF) ensures their perspectives are heard. Fair, independent dispute resolution builds confidence and accountability. 

1. Regulatory Environment: A robust regulatory framework is essential. Agents should have clearly defined rights and protections, formal recognition as essential financial services providers, and access to enforceable mechanisms when platforms breach agreements. Providing compliance support and sustainable investment incentives ensures agents meet CBN requirements, protects them from undue risk, and motivates platforms to focus on agent growth instead of simply extracting value. 

Success Stories: What Works When Agents Are Empowered 

Across Africa and Nigeria, well-trained, supported, and incentivised agents have transformed access to financial services. Equity Bank’s experience shows that agents perform better when treated as key partners, not just service points. This includes proper training and certification, access to reliable digital tools and POS devices, and systems that help them manage cash (liquidity) so they can serve customers without delays. They also benefit from incentives that reward good performance and regular support that helps them improve over time. 

For Nigeria, the key lesson is to strengthen how agents are supported in practice, beyond existing systems. This means helping agents solve day-to-day operational challenges more quickly, designing incentives that reward long-term customer service rather than just individual transactions, and using agent networks more intentionally to introduce customers to other financial services such as savings, credit, and insurance. Overall, the focus should be on building agents as a strong “human infrastructure” that can grow with the financial system and support deeper inclusion. 

Conclusion: Unlocking the Full Potential of Nigeria’s Agent Network 

Agents are more than transaction facilitators; they are trusted intermediaries and critical drivers of financial and digital inclusion. Their unique knowledge, local presence, and relationships position them to extend financial services to millions of underserved Nigerians, while enabling data-driven innovation and resilience in times of crisis. 

Realising this potential requires more than technology or regulatory compliance. Agents need ongoing capacity building, robust infrastructure, fair compensation, meaningful voice in decision-making, and a regulatory environment that protects their rights and incentivises sustainable partnerships. Platforms and financial institutions must move beyond extraction, sharing value equitably, and supporting agents as strategic partners. 

By investing in agents as human infrastructure, empowering them with training, tools, and protections, Nigeria can create a more inclusive, resilient, and innovative financial ecosystem. Strengthening agent networks is not just about operational efficiency; it is a vital step toward ensuring that financial services reach every corner of the country and unlock economic opportunity for all.