First Bank of Nigeria’s FirstMonie agent-banking network is now one of the country’s most visible financial inclusion channels. Across towns, markets, and rural communities, its agents provide cash-in/cash-out, transfers, bill payments and other everyday services that used to require a full branch visit.
But insiders say the journey to that scale and reliability was not automatic. By 2016, FirstMonie had grown quickly in raw numbers, yet performance was uneven. Many locations were overserved in already-banked urban areas, while genuine access gaps in rural and peri-urban communities remained thinly covered. Dormancy was also becoming a quiet problem—agents signed up in large volumes but failing to sustain activity.
“That early phase was basically growth by momentum,” says Olaitan Moses Ojo, Lead Digital Channels & Analytics Architect at MicroSave Consulting (MSC). “The intent was right, and the ambition was strong, but the distribution logic wasn’t yet evidence-led. We needed to make the network smart, not just big.”
Making FirstMonie data-driven
Rather than start by recruiting more agents, Ojo’s team began with a question that re-framed the entire programme: where does an additional FirstMonie agent genuinely expand access, and where does it merely add noise?
To answer that, they designed a geo-analytics model that combined multiple layers of field data:
• distribution of existing FirstBank branches, ATMs and FirstMonie agents.
• population and economic activity indicators at LGA and community levels; and
• actual transaction patterns from the network.
The output was a ranked map of financial access gaps—communities where demand for services was high, but formal access points were scarce or weak. This score became a practical planning tool for FirstMonie: it guided where new agents should be deployed first, which LGAs required density, and which areas were already saturated.
“When teams saw the map, it changed the conversation instantly,” Ojo explains. “It stopped being ‘let’s add agents everywhere’ and became ‘let’s add agents where they move inclusion.’”
FirstBank then used the model to rebalance and expand its footprint. New agent recruitment focused increasingly on underserved rural and peri-urban corridors, while overserved urban clusters were deprioritized. According to internal programme summaries referenced by stakeholders familiar with the engagement, the changes were visible within two years: coverage strengthened across nearly all LGAs, and deployment was more aligned to inclusion need rather than convenience.
Beyond placement: keeping agents active
Ojo says placement was only half the fix. The second half was ensuring agents stayed productive after onboarding.
“Dormancy is not just a field issue—it’s an analytics issue,” he says. “If you don’t understand agent viability early enough, you’ll keep losing capacity in the very places you’re trying to expand.”
Under his technical supervision, FirstMonie adopted agent-level performance scorecards that tracked more than simple transaction counts. The scorecards measured stability of activity, service mix, liquidity behaviour and early warning signs that an outlet was drifting toward dormancy.
That approach helped FirstMonie identify “anchor agents” in each micro-market who could be supported to handle higher volumes and broader services, while also flagging weaker outlets early for training or remediation. The result, according to programme observers, was a steady rise in active-agent ratios and transaction intensity, particularly outside major urban centres.
National recognition through NiTA
In October 2022, the FirstMonie analytics turnaround received public validation when Ojo was named “Most Outstanding Digital Channels & Analytics Architecture Professional of the Year” at the Nigeria Technology Awards (NiTA).
NiTA organisers stated that winners were selected after internal screening and voting by the awards advisory board, alongside professional judging under the Tech Individuals & Professionals category.
For Ojo, the recognition reflects a shift in how Nigeria is beginning to talk about agent banking.
“People often think the success is only in the physical kiosks or POS terminals,” he says. “But the real engine is the invisible layer—the analytics that decides where to go first, how to grow sustainably, and how to keep agents viable. That’s the part NiTA recognised.”
A blueprint for inclusive scale
FirstMonie’s story shows that agent banking is not just about recruitment volume or branding visibility. It is about building a distribution system that is deliberate, balanced and evidence-driven—especially in a country where access gaps can be sharply local.
Sector analysts say that the discipline FirstMonie adopted—gap-mapping, ranked roll-out planning, and agent viability scorecards—is now influencing how other banks and digital-finance providers approach last-mile expansion.
For Ojo, the lesson is simple: “If you want inclusion, you have to measure access honestly and design for it. Numbers alone don’t deliver impact. Analytics does.”
