The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS) and telecoms companies (Telcos) are working to ensure that more people have access to financial services.
The trio, at the weekend, collaborated to unveil the Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) payment solution, which is already being implemented by some banks to deepen financial inclusion.
Wema, Zenith, Fidelity, Diamond and Unity banks run the USSD platform while other banks are to sign up before the end of the year. Airtel, MTN, Etisalat and Glo are also on the project.
Speaking at the launch of mCash, Managing Director/ Chief executive officer NIBSS, Ade Shonubi said: “With mCash, the whole intention is to broaden the opportunity for people who today use cash to find a convenient means of making payments. The CBN has been pushing the cashless initiative for a long time and we have seen significant gains but a lot of the people who have benefited so far have been the 27 million banking customers.”
