By Nse Anthony-Uko
ABUJA, (Sundiata Post) – The United Nations Ambassador and Netherlands Queen Maxima von Amsberg has urged stronger collaboration between the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to improve financial inclusion in the country.
Queen Maxima, who is also the UN Secretary-General Special Advocate for Financial Inclusion and Development, decried the slow progress in increasing financial inclusion in Nigeria, also called on the regulators to increase the number of mobile money agents currently operating in the country in other to reach out to more unbanked population.
The Queen Netherlands and her entourage was in a meeting with the Executive Vice Chairman/CEO of the NCC Prof. Umaru Garba Danbatta, in Abuja on Tuesday, where she noted that the growth in financial inclusion in Nigeria has stalled in the last few years despite the progress made from 2009.
“I was here five years ago when we launched the first National Strategy on Financial Inclusion and a lot of things have happened since then. Since 2009 financial inclusion has grown in Nigeria. But in the last years it has stalled. So it is actually very timely that we are having this communications and dialogue with NCC and with CBN and with leadership of Nigeria and the private sector to address the issues because it will take all of our efforts to attain financial inclusion in Nigeria,” Queen Maxima said.
She said that the potentials of financial inclusion are enormous, however, all stakeholders would have to first come together and find lasting solutions to the risks both real and perceived if progress must be made on a sustainable basis.
The UN Ambassador listed some of the risk factors as Consumer protection; Deficit of infrastructure; Connectivity; the issue of Idenfifications among others.
“It is very important that the mobile network operators are included in this effort. 52 per cent of Nigerians do not have access to formal financial services. We have seen in many other countries what the potential of mobile network and mobile money actually offers. Not only in a bank-led model but certainly for payments, and very simple transactions, in faraway countries, communities what the potential of what mobile networks operators and mobile monies actually offers.
“We are prepared to help Nigeria in this journey of addressing these risks of identifying them and seeing what are the best ways to mitigate them, with regulations and or sometimes with self-regulations how these issues are best approached.”
Earlier in his opening remarks, Prof Danbatta restated the NCC’s commitment to continue to support a policy environment that will nurture the growth of mobile financial services in Nigeria and to work with the CBN, Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) and other relevant stakeholders to ensure the targets of the National Financial Inclusion Strategy are met.
According to him, the final draft of an MoU between the CBN and NCC was recently signed and the CBN/NCC Joint Technical Committee on Mobile Money is addressing the modalities of Mobile Money Operators registering Special Purpose Vehicles to enable them become Mobile Money Operators.
“Based on this arrangement, the NCC will then issue a letter of no objection to MNOs upon issuance of a MMO license by the CBN to enable the MMO effectively commence operations in Nigeria,”Danbatta explained.
He commended Queen Maxima for her efforts aimed at promoting financial inclusion globally and leading global voice advancing universal access to affordable, effective and safe financial services.
The National Financial Inclusion Strategy sets out milestones and targets to be met to reduce the percentage of financially excluded adult population in Nigeria to 20 per cent by 2020.
The EFInA Access to Financial Services in Nigeria 2016 Survey indicated that 41.6 per cent of the Nigerian adult population are financially excluded and the excluded population growing from 36.9 million in 2014 to 40.1 million in 2016.
Prof Danbatta said that these statistics indicate that decisive steps still need to be taken to address financial inclusion in Nigeria.
“Financial inclusion has been accepted as a very important enabler for different sustainable development goals. I have seen with my own eyes what it means for people to actually make payments, transfer funds to family members inside the country or even abroad; to be able to safe for the day you don’t have enough money to pay or cannot work for your income anymore; or you can actually get a credit to able to invest in your own company and even employ more people creating wealth in your country.”
I was here five years ago when we launched the first National Strategy on Financial Inclusion and a lot of things have happened since then. Since 2009 financial inclusion has grown in Nigeria. But in the last years it has stalled..
“It is very important that the mobile network operators are included in this effort. 52 per cent of Nigerians do not have access to formal financial services. We have seen in many other countries what the potential of mobile network and mobile money actually offers. Not only in a bank-led model but certainly for payments, and very simple transactions, in faraway countries, communities what the potential of what mobile networks operators and mobile monies actually offers.
“Possibly in the future and in partnership with the financial services institutions, it is very important that the regulators of both the financial sector and the communication sector actually work together to address potential risks that can arise from this issue. Consumer protection is a very important issue deficit of infrastructure is definitely another issue, and connectivity is another issue because a lot of Nigerians do not have access to communication. So if you want to really give them full inclusion financial connectivity and reliability of connectivity will be a very important issue. The possibility of using agents; The agents of the MNOs are about 150,000 right now we only have 40,000 plus agents. We need to use these agents. Its amazing distribution network that telecommunication networks actually have around the country to be able to give transfer and payment options for all Nigerians.
Maybe Nigeria should be given the examples of Mexico and other countries about what they have been doing to improve connectivity in really rural areas.
The other big issue is the issue of IDs. How do we build on the SIM registration that telecoms have been doing, in strengthening that. I know that the NIMC has been working very closely with NCC, but how can we strengthen the collaboration to really capture on what has been done to give people the KYC measure that will enable people to have access to financial services and payment opportunities. I think the potential is enormous, what is extremely important is this cooperation bet the CBN and NCC to really line and address all the potential risks both perceived and real risks, to having this happen.
A lot of countries have addressed these issues s it is not impossible. If we do it together we will achieve it
We are prepared to help Nigeria in this journey of addressing this risks of identifying them and seeing what are the best ways to mitigate them, with regulations and or sometimes with self-regulations how these issues are best approached.