Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to foster the growth of mobile money and financial inclusion in Nigeria.
The MoU provides the framework for licensing of payment service providers and also guides the workings of the stakeholders both in the banking and telecommunication industries about driving not just the mobile payment but also the payment system in Nigeria.
The contractual signing by Umar Garba Danbatta, executive vice chairman, NCC, and Godwin Emefiele, CBN governor, occurred at the CBN headquarters in Abuja on April 9.
During the signing, Danbatta said the event was an output of efforts of the joint committee set up by the two regulatory bodies, saying, “On the basis of the MoU we have signed, the two organisations have indicated commitment towards driving the financial inclusion in the country as well as ensuring improvement in the mobile money penetration.”
Danbatta told Emefiele that the NCC’s digital transformation policy was aimed at improving good governance with specific emphasis on key sectors of the economy like finance, education, and transportation.
Giving remarks, Emefiele said with the MoU, the goal of achieving 80 percent penetration in financial inclusion was now realisable.
“With this signing, we are now very sure that we will very easily improve the level of financial inclusion from the level it is today, which is about 40 percent, and we set a target for ourselves that by 2020 the level of financial inclusion should increase to about 80 percent,” Emefiele said.
Speaking further, the CBN governor said, “Our teams have worked for several months trying to put together this landmark document with an intention to ensure that the NCC and the Central Bank of Nigeria can work together to produce a payment system in Nigeria, reducing cash transaction and enhancing cashless operations. It will also facilitate a more robust payment system.”
