Ben Uzor Jr
There are strong indications that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) may extend the deadline given to Mobile Money Service Providers to granted provisional licences to provide payment services in the country, Business Day has learnt. Industry analysts told Business Day at the weekend that the CBN would not adopt a stringent stance in this circumstance due to the complexities inherent in rolling out such services.
In 2010, the CBN granted 16 operators approval-in-principle to operate mobile money services in the country. They include; Stanbic IBTC Bank Plc, Ecobank Nigeria Plc, Fortis MFB, UBA/Afripay, GuarantyTrust Bank Plc/MTN and First Bank of Nigeria Plc. Others are Pagatech, Paycom, M-Kudi, Chams, Eartholeum, E-Tranzact, Parkway, Monitise, FET and Corporeti.
The operators were given four months (January to April this year) to demonstrate their capacities to roll out mobile money networks. At the end of the said period, mobile money operators were expected to return for an assessment to ascertain if the approval-in-principle licenses will become permanent.
Industry analysts however observing the scenario at play say that they are optimistic the CBN may grant more time to mobile payment operators to enable them “perfect the processes and procedures needed to prove beyond any reasonable doubt that they possess the requisite competence” to roll-out mobile money networks in Nigeria. Besides, Abayomi Atoloye, director, banking and payment systems, confirmed that the apex bank would not sanction operators, according to a document sighted by BusinessDay.
Atoloye, in the report, had said that the CBN would rather grant them an extension of the deadline. According to him, being a new initiative, it was important to perfect the processes and procedures to avoid mistakes. He did not however say how much time the operators have but noted that decision on that would be taken at a meeting later this month.
Emmanuel Okogwale, managing partner, MobileMoneyAfrica who spoke with Business Day in an interview gave reasons with the CBN deadline. Okogwale disclosed that some mobile money operators do not want to invest hugely in acquiring new technologies and still be subjected to final licensing. According to Okogwale, if the CBN refuses to grant them permanent licenses how would these operators justify the investments made?
“Aside from technology which is available off the shelf though expensive, another issue that many of the providers are still faced with is the mind set of thinking mobile money is a technology offering rather than an agency offering. Signing the agents, recruitment, training and deploying a well developed agent network is the major obstacle facing the providers. “Many potential agents do not know on what authorization are these providers acting on.
“I think the CBN should step in by allaying the fears of the agents and also help the industry in developing a standard enterprise Risk and mitigation framework”, he stated. Miebe Senge, industry analyst agrees with Okogwale, adding that the absence of uniform short code access, security issues, among others have combined to hobble the take off of the initiative.
Meanwhile, Mobile money service providers’ licensees in Nigeria have complained that the lack of channels are frustrating efforts to implement robust route to reach the mass market. Chike Onwuegbuchi, another analyst pointed out that majority of the operators are struggling with Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) which is easy to use and works on all phones because telecommunications operators are unwilling to carry the licenses on their network.
According to him, mobile money operators are providing services mainly on Java and WAP which are not within reach in most rural areas with limited GPRS footprint, incompatible devices as well as limited education and awareness.
Some mobile money licensees have not being completely quiet in terms of expediting processes for roll-out of mobile money as e-Tranzact, one of the licensees has perfected its interactive unstructured supplementary service data (USSD) to improve access to mobile banking services by all mobile phone users in the country, irrespective of their handsets. Elsewhere, Fortis Mobile Money, based in Abuja, is said to be currently training verified store owners and communities on the new innovative channel to deliver basic financial services.
In addition, Pagatech has entered into an agreement with Multichoice to pay monthly DSTV subscription via installers’ outlets in selected locations.
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