Mobile-payments service provider ChamsMobile Ltd. soon will launch mobile funds-transfer services in Nigeria, enabling citizens there to make payments for retail purchases and receive remittances from overseas connections.
ChamsMobile plans to offer the service in collaboration with Lagos-based Skye Bank PLC and Denmark-based Bancore Mobile Financial Services, a spokesperson for company told PaymentsSource in an interview.
A unit of Nigeria-based information-technology company Chams PLC, ChamsMobile has received in-principle approval from the Central Bank of Nigeria to offer mobile funds-transfer services, according to the spokesperson. The Central Bank of Nigeria granted in-principle approval to 16 companies last year to offer mobile-payment services in Nigeria, but it also asked them to prove their worthiness of a license to provide those services (
ChamsMobile already has finished an internal pilot of the service, according to a press release issued June 2, and it claims to have satisfied the central bank’s “worthiness” test.
ChamsMobile’s services would be based on its proprietary technology that enables customers to transfer funds from their regular bank accounts into a virtual account usable at merchant locations, the spokesperson added.
“The funds can be transferred from any payment card into the virtual account via enabled [point-of-sale] terminals, ATMs, e-payment kiosks and Internet banking,” he said. “They can then use the account to make payments for goods and services using any GPRS-enabled mobile (phone) across telecom networks in the country.”
Users of the service download an application to enable them log in to the virtual account. To make a payment, users key in the amount, the merchant’s mobile number and a four digit PIN to authorize the transaction.
In addition, ChamsMobile’s collaboration with Bancore will enable Nigerians to receive funds from friends and relatives in Europe and other parts of the world. Bancore provides a mobile-payment platform that enables mobile-banking users to transfer funds to any card account backed by Visa Inc. and MasterCard Worldwide, the spokesperson explained.
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