Firstmonie, MMIT collaborate on BlackBerry social commerce

Firstmonie, mobile money service of First Bank of Nigeria Limited, and MMIT (Mobile Media Info Tech), are partnering BlackBerry in Nigeria to enable social commerce in BBM™, the popular private social network.

This collaboration will enable Nigerians access and pay for digital content available on BBM shop using their Firstmonie mobile wallet, from FirstBank. With this, BBM users in Nigeria will be able to personalise and enhance their chat experiences.

This includes being able to easily browse and download stickers that will bring some more fun to BBM chats. Most of the content has been localised allowing users to express themselves in local lingo. Now BBM users can say “How you dey?” and much more in a fun “Naija way” to brighten up their chat.

According to Chuma Ezirim, head, cards and physical channels, FirstBank, this new service is another step towards leveraging evolving technologies to bring fast and convenient financial services closer to the unbanked and under banked Nigerians, a move that clearly aligns with the CBN financial inclusion initiative.

“By enabling people to use their mobile phones as a tool for carrying out financial transactions and accessing digital content, FirstBank is delivering long-term benefits for both our customers and the Nigerian economy as we continue to put our customers first,” Ezirim said.

Jide Akindele, founder of MMIT, said, “Today, we are breaking new grounds by extending our mobile payments capabilities into BBM, which is the social network where Nigerians spend most of their time.

“This is just the start. Our merchants, who are increasingly advertising on BBM to reach their customers, will also be able to leverage our collaboration with BlackBerry to convert these advertisements into e-commerce sales.”