Katsina- The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) said on Tuesday in Katsina that mobile money operating companies recorded transactions worth over N430billion between 2012 and date.
Mr Musa Ibrahim, the Head, Payment System Policy and Oversight Division of Banking and Payments System Department, said this at Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC)-sponsored workshop for newsmen.
“Recent Developments in the Nigerian Banking System” is the theme of the workshop.
According to Ibrahim, each of the operating mobile money operators records an average of N14million worth of transaction monthly.
He added that services were rendered to 15million subscribers.
He said that mobile money operators had about 780,000 agents that interfaced between subscribers and the mobile money operators.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that seven commercial banks were involved in mobile money operation.
Ibrahim said the CBN prevented Telecommunication Companies (TELCOS) from leading any of the mobile money scheme models.
Ibrahim said the exclusion was because the TELCOS are regulated by the Nigerian Communication Communications (NCC) and not CBN.
He also said that the TELCOs were excluded because they were not deposit money banks.
Mr Kingsley Nwaigwe, Deputy Director, Research, Policy and Internal Relations, NDIC, said mobile money customers had transactions limit with any of the appointed agents based on the three-tiered Know Your Customers (KYC) categorisation.
According to him, tier 1 allows N3,000 per transaction per customer and not more than N30,000 per day and only subscriber’s name and telephone numbers are needed for it.
Tier 2 category allows for N10,000 per transaction per customer and not more than N100,000 per day but requires additional information such as means of identification and address.
The third tier permits N100, 000 transaction per customers and not more than one million per day but with more stringent KYC details.
He, however, said that there was no limit on the individual customer account balances in the scheme.
Nwaigwe said that with the adoption of Pass-Through Insurance (PTI),, the corporation would extend deposit insurance coverage to mobile payments subscribers.
He said they would also be assisted to fulfill the NDIC public policy objective of engendering public confidence in the banking systematic.
Nwaigwe said the extension of deposit insurance cover to subscribers of mobile money would encourage the use of mobile money platform.
He said this would contribute to the success of financial inclusion agenda of government and promote financial system stability in the country.
Meanwhile, NDIC said it had extended deposit insurance cover to subscribers of mobile money via Pass-Through Insurance for up to N 500,000. (NAN)
