The Nigerian Interbank Settlement System has been having series of network downtime over the past few weeks and is likely to get even worse as we approach the year end and festive period.
banking halls are currently over crowded with aggrieved customers complaining of dispense error and pending transaction from various e-channels.
Mobile money is an electronic wallet service. This is available in many countries and allows users to store, send, and receive money using their mobile phone. The safe and easy electronic payments make Mobile money a popular alternative to bank accounts. It can be used on both smartphone and basic feature phones.
unless for interoperability purposes,mobile money does not need the Nigerian interbank settlement system to function.
transactions are carried out at Agent locations.Such transactions include
cash in : deposits into ones wallet
cash out : withdrawal from ones wallet
transfers : this could be P2P( person to person) on the network.P2B and wallet to bank.
money can also be sent to emails and persons without account via FAC(fund access code).
mobile money is already in Nigeria and we are currently experiencing a massive growth in the expansion of Agent Network however,these agents prefers to work as an extension of are bank as they only consummate wallet to bank services and Pos withdrawal.
this is posing a Bug challenge in the struggle for financial inclusion as agents are to on profit oriented and are not patient enough to guild customers through the mobile money registration process.
the mobile money operators have a part of the blame as a they encourage this by giving agents target on wallet to bank transactions instead of mobile wallet registration.
i m conclusion,the CBN needs to be deliberate if mobile money must grow and work in Nigeria. they need to encourage mobile money operators by making the license more affordable and release supper agency license to investors. Nigerians should also be educated on the ease and convenience mobile money provides. Agencies like NYSC should be encouraged to pay allowances via mobile money onto coppers mobile wallet to encourage the usage.