• Friday, March 29, 2024
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Mobile money agents move to bridge knowledge gap in financial inclusion

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In a bid to further drive financial inclusion and achieve Nigeria’s 80 percent target by the year 2020, it has become crucial for critical players to device ways to increase awareness and bridge the knowledge gap among financial inclusions agents in the country.

With focus on Northern Nigeria, which has the highest number of financially excluded people, the Association of Mobile Money Agents in Nigeria (AMMAN) in collaboration with Ecosa Hybrid Network recently organised a capacity building workshop with the aim of bridging the knowledge gap amongst financial inclusion agents and other core stakeholders in the industry in the region.

Speaking on the importance of financial literacy, Victor Olojo, national president, AMMAN, said the workshop became necessary in view of low awareness in that part of the country as well as impact skills on agents on agent banking and mobile money.

“The workshop offered training and follow up to execution of new agent network in northern Nigeria especially in Kano state, share funding and product opportunities among participants as well as provide varieties of point of sale terminals (PoS), fund transfer platforms among others for agents to access from the exhibition stand,” he said.

According to Olojo, AMMAN also used the opportunity to launch its special agenda for Northern women with the theme; ‘Northern Women for Financial Inclusion (NWFI’).

Northern Women for Financial Inclusion is an advocacy programme that seeks to break the barrier of reaching the women in the last mile.

“Core of NWFI is advocacy and job creation for Northern women so as to bridge cultural barrier that deters women from mingling with the general public. It has been reported that Kano and Gombe states were least states in the financial inclusion ranking in the country,” he said.

He further stated that AMMAN has taken its rightful place in the financial inclusion industry in Nigeria with the workshop.

“We are now the alternative to all other stakeholders, who failed to deliver on the 2020 goal of the CBN of reducing exclusion rate to 20 percent,” Olojo said.

AMMAN has proven to be capable and impactful. Since most banks and MMOs only deploy technologies and are interested in profit making without taking the responsibility of agent training and job creation

The association provides a reliable channel for feedback on performances of various digital financial services. Stakeholders say this has helped in raising the efficiency of financial inclusion services in Nigeria.

 

Jumoke Akiyode Lawanson