Friday, 29th March 2024
To guardian.ng
Search
Breaking News:

NIBSS, banks, telcos target 80% financial inclusion by 2020

By Adeyemi Adepetun and Helen Oji
04 November 2016   |   4:03 am
Speaking at the launch of the initiative, the Managing Director of NIBSS, Ade Shonubi said mCASH was an innovative solution, designed to facilitate low-value retail payment.
Adebisi Shonubi

Adebisi Shonubi

A new initiative to deepen financial inclusion and reposition the country’s cash-less economy has been unveiled by banks and telecommunications sectors operators in the country.

The new initiative tagged ‘microCash (mCASH) was unveiled in Lagos yesterday by the lead promoter, Nigeria Inter Bank Settlement System PLC (NIBSS) with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) projecting the new initiative to facilitate 80 per cent financial inclusion drive in the country by 2020.

Speaking at the launch of the initiative, the Managing Director of NIBSS, Ade Shonubi said mCASH was an innovative solution, designed to facilitate low-value retail payment.

Shonubi said that the solution would grow e-payments by providing accessible electronic channels to a wider range of users and further enhance financial inclusion in Nigeria.

He said this would be enhanced through mCASH by extending e-payment benefits to payers and merchants at the bottom of the pyramid where the use of cash had been predominant.

“It leverages the NIBSS Instant Payments infrastructure (NIP) for immediate fund delivery to merchants’ accounts and mobile telephone Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) technology,” he stated.

The Director, Banking and Payment System Department of the CBN, Dipo Fatokun endorsed mCASH, saying the initiative would facilitate Nigeria’s vision of achieving 80 per cent financial inclusion level by 2020.

Fatokun, who was represented by the Principle Manager, Payment System Policy and Oversight Office, Banking and Payment System Department of CBN, Joe Obogo, added that the payment solution would address effort to reduce the amount of cash circulating in the economy.

The Head of Product Management, NIBSS, Ms Sarah Chidebelu-Eze said mCASH was a solution for sellers to receive payments from payers, using mobile phones.

Chidebelu-Eze said that the payer would use the merchant’s eight-digits seller code to send the money to the merchant.

She said transaction below N10,000 would be charged N20, while transaction above N10,000 would be charged N50, a maximum of N50,000 payment was allowed for a day.

In this article

0 Comments