First Bank of Nigeria and Etisalat plan on new mobile money scheme to improve accessibility and security of mobile payments in the country. FBN’s Firstmonie and Etisalat’s easywallet will be fused to create a new solution that can push for adoption of mobile money in Africa’s largest economy.
The synergy is going to promote the use of FBN’s Firstmonie on the Etisalat easywallet Stk menu, thus creating some new value for all stakeholders in the mobile money segment including customers, agents and merchants. “Firstmonie has continued to show its commitment to upholding the financial inclusion drive by the Central Bank of Nigeria and this is evident in its recent award of the Best Mobile Money Operator in Nigeria by the EFInA Financial Inclusion Awards,” according to Folake Ani-Mumuney, head of marketing and corporate communications, FBN.
“Partnering with Etisalat to promote the use of the STK menu as the preferred mobile money channel further demonstrates our commitment to lead innovation in the development of secure mobile payment solutions,” she said.
Speaking on the partnership, Lucas Dada, business segment director at Etisalat Nigeria, said: “Etisalat easywallet is one of the most secure and convenient platforms for mobile money services. With the easywallet, Etisalat subscribers can make financial transactions such as Peer-to-Peer transfers, Bills Payment and Airtime top-up, directly from their mobile device.”
CBN opened up the mobile money highway in 2009, as a strategy to boost financial inclusion levels to 80 percent by 2020, but the country is seeing a rather slow adoption of this service. As at 2010 when full mobile money services were launched, the entire banking sector of 22 banks could only boast of about 25 million bank accounts despite a population of over 170 million people.
