The Central Bank of Nigeria will not extend the operational deadline for a second time for the 16 companies it has granted in-principle approval to offer mobile payments in Nigeria to prove their worthiness of a license to provide those services.
Abayomi Atoloye, the central bank’s director of payment systems, reportedly issued the decree on May 18 at a payments forum in Lagos, and a central bank spokesperson confirms its accuracy to PaymentsSource.
The 16 operators include such banks as Stanbic IBTC Bank PLC, Ecobank Nigeria PLC, Fortis Microfinance Bank Ltd., Guaranty Trust Bank PLC and First Bank of Nigeria PLC and such payment providers as Paycom, e-Tranzact, Parkway and Monitise.
The central bank first offered the prospective operators approvals in December to run a pilot to demonstrate whether they have the technical and managerial expertise needed for a mobile payment services license in Nigeria.
The bank already extended the deadline once. The new deadline ends on May 31, 2011, an extension that the director said was enough for the operators to prove their ability to provide mobile-payment services effectively.
Any operator that fails 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 is working with the Nigerian Communications Commission on technical issues regarding the interoperability and pricing of payment services, the spokesperson says.
“The two regulators have had meetings on the issues, and a draft of guidelines on the interoperability of the mobile-payment systems would be made available to the industry stakeholders for feedback,” he adds.
