Creating further competition in Nigeria’s mobile-payments market, First Bank of Nigeria PLC plans to launch a mobile-money service in collaboration with two telecommunication operators.
The Lagos-based bank has signed memorandums of understanding with Globacom PLC and Airtel Nigeria PLC to establish the service, which the companies plan to launch soon, according to a company release.
First Bank plans to target the unbanked and the underbanked, a spokesperson tells PaymentsSource, noting the service would help the institution penetrate further into rural Nigeria.
“We are looking at person-to-person transactions in terms of funds transfers and also retail transactions for the purchase of goods and service,” he says, noting the bank will reveal the specific user model when the service launches.
The mobile-money service also would benefit regular banking customers, who would be able to use it to access bank accounts and do basic banking transactions such as account-balance checks, the spokesperson says.
First Bank operates 600 branches in Nigeria, 1,500 ATMs and more than 1,200 point-of-sale terminals that serve more than 5 million accountholders, according to the bank’s website.
Of the two telcos, Globacom already runs a mobile-payment service called Glo Txtcash, which is a mobile wallet subscribers may use to transfer funds using any mobile number, pay for goods and pay for mobile airtime.
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