Brands
There are indications that
the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) is currently reviewing the legal framework
for effectiveness of mobile money in Nigeria.
Making the disclosure at
the 2016 Conference of the Brand Journalists’ Association of Nigeria (BJAN) on
Friday in Lagos, themed: Mobile Money In Nigeria: Challenges, Opportunities,
Threats, Mr. Jimoh Itopa, Deputy Director, Mobile Banking and Payment System
Department, Central Bank of Nigeria said that the review became necessary
following some negative fallouts form the system in the country.
Jimoh added that the CBN
is aware of all the impediments to the success of the programme and it is ready
that all these are removed for the success of the programme.
“Mobile money is currently
being reviewed and the CBN is working ahead to see that anything that will work
against its success is removed,” he said.
He added that the CBN is
also meeting with telecommunications companies (Telco) especially the big four
in Nigeria to see how they can be properly incorporated into the mobile money
system.
This becomes imperative as
experts have said severally that there should be stakeholders’ collaboration in
order to ensure affordability, quality and availability of their information
such as USSD, integration of data and others that will drive effective mobile
money in the country.
Interestingly, experts are
of the opinion that what the country currently has in place is mobile banking
instead of mobile money, which has not really served the customers
appropriately.
It will be recalled that
the CBN introduced mobile money and mobile payment services in Nigeria with the
intention of driving financial inclusion and facilitate the growth of commercial
activities in the country.
Thus, the use of the
mobile phone for the initiation, authorization and confirmation of the transfer
of value out of a current, savings or stored value account has been recognized
as a development that is capable of expanding the growth of commerce among both
the financially included and non included units in the economy.
This informed the
formation of regulatory framework by the CBN to address business rules
governing the operation of mobile payment services, and specifies basic
functionalities expected of any mobile payment service and solution in Nigeria.
The framework identifies the participants and defines their expected roles and responsibilities
in providing mobile payment services in the system. In addition, it sets the basis
for the regulation of services offered at different levels and by the
participants.
The overriding vision of
achieving a nationally utilized and internationally recognized payments system
necessitates strategies to bring informal payment transactions into the formal
system.
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