What are they: Payment Service Banks?

In clear terms, they Banks licensed to Telecom Companies in Nigeria by CBN with the mandate of archiving "financial inclusion". They are to house their operations 70% in rural areas. With offerings like Bill/Utility payments, Deposit/Transfer and Vtu airtime/Data but not loans!

And we have 4 fully licenced PBSs in Nigeria, which includes;
1. SmartMoney PSB (Glo)
2. Momo PSB (MTN)
3. Hope PSB
4. 9PSB (9mobile)

So Following the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)'s announcement of January 31, 2023 as the deadline for old 200, 500 & 1000 Naira bill and subsequently the enforcement of cashless policies, One could thought there fore plans to easy the plight of the unbanned masses that dwells in rural areas.

And that the Telecom operators could utilize their customer/network reach effectively and aggressively in favour of their banks, with same energy they go about hunting new customers!.

But they were mere fantasies at best.

Fast forward February, there's a n extension of 10days to the elapsed deadline. And still yet non of the supposed saviours (the PSBs) is up or rather live on NIBSS, the Nigerian bank system that enables transactions across integrated banks; transfer etc.
As such it's impossible to fund accounts/wallets from other Banks which is probably the only way out to deposit.

So I dare ask how long before the PSBs pickup?

It's disheartening and saddening that they are not making enough efforts in awake of the CBN's recent policy that derive towards digital economy.

The PSBs potentials to rival already established Commercial Banks(FBN, Access, UBA, Zenith etc) and Digital Banks(Vbank, Kids, Opay, Last etc) is predictable and achievable as there is a large unbanked populace in there in remote locations across the federation, with mobile phones.

But he'll No!!! It's what it is!

And we believe the switch over to new Naira bills wouldn't have been this problematic and chaotic if the 4 licenced PSBs were serious and had effectively penetrated through with their offerings, which is their mandate.

Notwithstanding, we hope they soon realise the how much Gold they have on with already, before it's too late to gain a significant market share.

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