The Central Bank of Nigeria reportedly is in talks with the Nigerian Postal Services to use of the bank’s branches as outposts to promote mobile payments.
The two entities are negotiating how to share facilities at the postal service’s branches nationwide, including those that may have been abandoned for lack of use or maintenance, local newspaper The Nation reports.
At least 23 banks in Nigeria are part of the discussions with the postal agency for their mobile-payment initiatives, which Central Bank expects would increase financial inclusion in rural areas.
Central Bank officials were not available for immediate comment. However, a spokesperson at the postal agency tells PaymentsSource the talks are in an advanced stage and that an announcement will come soon.
“The thought right now is to have the banks and payment providers come in and set up the backbone of a network that the postal agency’s customers can link up to make payments and fund transfers,” he says.
The spokesperson declined to discuss any further developments or comment on the timeframe of the collaboration.
This is not the first instance of a developing Asian or African nation using postal branches to spread financial services. India Post, the national postal service of India, also announced earlier this year that it planned to deploy special-function ATMs throughout India (
India Post’s plans have since run into trouble with the central bank (
