The Central Bank of Nigeria has
issued licences to 15 mobile money operators as part of its drive towards
increasing financial inclusion.
To further address observed absence
of a widespread agent network, and concentration of agents in the urban areas,
the CBN said it had released guidelines for mobile money services in Nigeria.
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The Governor of the CBN, Godwin
Emefiele, said that this was with the intent of bringing the operators on board
by utilising their network spread.
“We have so far provided 15 licences
to several mobile money operators who are working to increase access to finance
using digital channels,” he said.
As part of its financial inclusion
drive, the CBN said Shared Agent Network Expansion Facility was introduced in
2018.
It stated that it was a joint
initiative of the CBN and the Bankers Committee.
According to the CBN, SANEF was
expected to result in a roll-out of 500,000 agent touch points by 2020.
The services to be delivered at such
touch points were given as cash-in, cash-out, funds transfer, bill payments,
airtime purchase, government disbursements and remote enrolment of the BVN to
an estimated 60 million Nigerians that were unbanked.
It stated that licensed MMOs and super
agents were expected to deploy financial service agent outlets in under-served
urban, semi-urban and rural areas in Nigeria, with higher priority in the
northern geopolitical zones, where financial exclusion rates were higher.
The CBN said it introduced a licence
category for super agents in 2016 in the payment ecosystem.
It said, “The super agents are
expected to complement the efforts of the MMOs and banks, by hiring and
managing sub-agents and extending financial services to the unbanked at minimal
cost.
“The super agents are expected to be
effective at extending the reach to locations where bank branches may not be
available.”
Under this category and working with
the Bankers Committee and the Nigerian Postal Service, the CBN stated that it
enabled the creation of NIRSAL Micro Finance Bank in 2019, which had begun to
provide financial services across all NIPOST outlets nationwide.
It stated that this measure would
enable individuals in underserved locations to access financial services at a
reasonable cost.
(The Punch)