By Amaka Ifeakandu
Lagos
Over N430 billion has been transacted through mobile money scheme in Nigeria since 2012 it rolled out in the country.
Head, Payment System Policy and Oversight Division Banking and Payments Department of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr. Musa ItopaJimoh disclosed this in Kastina at seminar organised by Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) for financial Journalist and business editors. In his presentation tagged “Over view of
Mobile Payments Services Framework in Nigeria he said that mobile money operators in the country transfer about N14 million monthly.
He said that currently we have 78,000 mobile agents, 15 million subscribers and 21 Mobile Money operators in the country.
He further said that it is expected that mobile money scheme (MMS) operators in Nigeria shall by January 1, 2016 have a shareholders fund unimpaired by losses of N2 billion.
He however said that apex regulators exclude telecommunications from leading any of the MMS models because they are not regulated by the CBN.
Apart from non regulation, he said that Telecoms provide the telecommunication and ancillary services to the MMO , adding that they could become dominant and prioritize transactions from other networks. Also speaking, the Deputy Director, Research, Policy and International Relations Department, CBN, Mr Kingsley Nwaigwe said that there are three ways through which financial loss could occur in the mobile payment business.
Some of the ways according to him include outright theft by Money Mobile Operators and its staff, through payment agents, adding that collapse of any licensed Deposit Money Bank which is the custodian of the pool account. He said that some of the challenges for deposit insurance coverage for MPO was that the MMO must provide the identity of its subscribers through rendition of periodic returns account to the supervisory authorities just as bank do. He said that the MMO pool account is governed by a board of trustee to guarantee the safty of subscriber’s fund, stressing that there is need to minimise risk exposure through effective supervision/principle of aggregation in the absence of any additional premium.
