As Nigeria’s strategy of using mobile banking to move toward a cashless economy progresses, Stanbic IBTC Bank Plc became the latest bank among a handful in the nation allowed to offer mobile-payment services.
Lagos-based Stanbic IBTC, part of the South Africa-based Standard Bank Group, announced Sept. 6 that the Central Bank of Nigeria awarded it with a license to provide mobile payment services in the country.
Stanbic IBTC conducted a successful trial of its Blue Cash mobile-payments platform in order to meet the central bank’s requirements, according to a statement from the bank. Blue Cash is a service that offers person-to-person money transfers at designated agents or via cell phone-based mobile wallets.
With this development, Stanbic IBTC becomes the final bank among seven fully licensed to operate mobile money services in Nigeria under the government’s new Mobile Payments Regulatory Framework.
The Central Bank of Nigeria had set a final deadline for the end of May for the 16 companies it had granted in-principle approval to offer mobile payments in Nigeria to prove their worthiness of a license to provide those services.
The deadline was an extension from the original date of December 2010 the bank had set for these companies to complete a pilot to demonstrate whether they had the technical and managerial expertise needed to gain a mobile payment services license in Nigeria.
Other banks approved by the central bank in Nigeria including Fortis Micro finance Bank Ltd, UBA Nigeria PLC, GTBank PLC, Ecobank Nigeria PLC, First Bank of Nigeria PLC, and Equatorial Trust bank PLC.
Any operator that failed to meet the required criteria for assessment during the pilot will not receive a full operator license, according to the central bank.
The central bank said the new framework is designed to protect consumers from unscrupulous vendor practices and to streamline bank offerings.
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