By Alex C
Globacom is in a renewed push to scale up mobile money services in Nigeria, Africa’s largest economy, through formation of a new partnership ecosystem, comprising of leading financial services companies, and a robust nationwide agent network.
About three years after the launch of mobile money service in the country by Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the service is yet to catch on with the masses. Analysts believe that the mobile money, with a potential market size expected to reach N1.1 trillion by 2015, holds the key to achieve financial inclusion in Nigeria. This is essentially due to the nation’s huge mobile penetration.
In view of this development, Globacom says it is committed to changing the dynamics of the market, by forging stronger ties with licensed mobile money operators, FirstBank, Ecobank and Stanbic IBTC, in a move that would help actualise the CBN financial inclusion strategy.
The partnership initiative, according to the telecoms company, will accelerate the mobile money revolution, as it will avail the fledgling industry of the much needed distribution network.
Speaking at the launch of the new initiative tagged ‘Glo xchange’, Kamal Shonibare, head of Glo prepaid, said the initiative is another unique opportunity to offer more financial services to Nigerians.
“It is a convergence of all financial services to the mobile phone. There are 20 million Nigerians with access to financial services. 80 million Nigerians are, however, unbanked.”
According to him, the banks are yet to make significant impact in the area of bringing financial services to the majority of the populace due to infrastructural constraint. By strengthening the role of telecoms operators in the scheme, service adoption levels will grow exponentially, he further explained.
Dipo Fatokun, CBN’s director, banking & payments system department, said the initiative represents a massive step in the country’s quest to transit from a cash to an electronic based economy.
“The forum is significant to the apex bank in view of using telecommunications to bring more Nigerians into the financial system. Over 46 percent of adult Nigerians have no access to financial services. But the CBN is working to bridge that gap through a well formed national financial payment system,” Fatokun explained.
According to him, the launch of this new initiative would enable more Nigerians, especially those in the rural areas, use electronic channels to conduct and consummate financial transactions. The CBN governor pointed out that Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country, has made significant stride in its efforts to migrate into a cashless environment.
“As at 2012, we had 10,727 ATMs. The figure has moved to 15,000 as at June 2014. The value of transactions moved from N1.3 trillion to N1.7 trillion within the same period. As at June 2014, the number of Point of Sale (PoS) machines has reached 135, 000,” Fatokun added