NIBSS Moves To Boost Financial Inclusion
The Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System Plc has relaunched an e-payment platform, mCASH, targeting 500,000 agents, in a bid to deepen financial inclusion in the country.
The Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, NIBSS, Adebisi Shonubi, said at the relaunch in Lagos on Tuesday that NIBSS had partnered banks, telecommunication companies, financial regulators, and merchants on the initiative.
He said part of the idea of financial inclusion, which the banks had committed to, was the rolling of agency networks.
According to Shonubi, in the next two years, the plan is to have 500,000 agent networks that will provide financial services as well as educate and inform people on how the platform works.
He said, “For the rural areas, it is the agents that will be registered on the mCASH network, through which villagers can send and receive money. Gradually, people will start to embrace financial services and technology, and then, everyone can own a bank account.”
According to him, the mCASH platform makes use of a common Unstructured Supplementary Service Data that cuts across all banks.
“Someone who has multiple bank accounts does not have to start racking his/her brain on the various USSD codes of each bank. mCASH also comes with an insurance of up to N50,000 in case of fraud,” Shonubi noted.
He stated that the NIBSS worked with all the telcos to give the USSD a priority, adding that in terms of service, it was believed that the platform would give a better service and less failure than the regular bank USSD codes.
According to him, the platform, which was first launched in 2016, did not go as planned as the issue of SIM swap was not foreseen.
Shonubi added that the NIBSS had since learnt from mistakes to rebuild the mCASH into a better platform.
The Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Diamond Bank Plc, Uzoma Dozie, who was represented by the Deputy Managing Director, Caroline Anyanwu, stated that the relaunch of the mCASH was to facilitate payment and eliminate lapses in the day-to-day financial transactions.
According to him, the mCASH has the potential to support the CBN on its cashless policy and financial inclusion drive.
