Ecobank Nigeria Limited, a subsidiary of the Pan-African Ecobank Transnational Inc has it is bridging Nigeria’s inclusion gap through its EcobankPay, the lifestyle digital payments and collections service.
The Deposit Money Bank said it is leveraging technology to push the frontiers of financial inclusion in the country, targeting the unbanked and under-banked.
In a recent presentation, Patrick Akinwuntan, Managing Director of Ecobank Nigeria while speaking on the topic Leveraging Fintech Innovation for Unlocking Growth and Competitiveness in Nigeria’s Mobile & Payment Ecosystem said the country remains a dynamic market with a lot of opportunities for digital financial expansion.
“Ecobank has built an ecosystem that leverages digital technology to bring affordable, easy and convenient financial services to the people and businesses. The bank is currently pushing EcobankPay, Xpress Agency Points and other digital platforms as key solutions to address the rapid shift to mobile payment and the adoption of digital channels across the country,” Akinwuntan.
According to the MD, EcobankPay, is a lifestyle scan and pay digital payment and collection service which accepts payments from other platforms; mVisa, Masterpass, and mCash. “Payment can be made with any phone by scanning the QR code or using USSD at merchant locations.”
The product’s unique offering, Akinwuntan stressed, is its interoperability, as “all bank customers in Nigeria can pay through their accounts in other banks. It is free to set up, as the shop owner only needs his/her QR code and phone for notifications to start receiving quick and easy payments. Merchant QR can also be set up via Facebook Messenger as well as USSD payment for low-income phone users.”
EcobankPay, he assured, “is currently available at over 90,000 merchant locations across the country. This is in addition to over 6,000 Xpress point agent locations in the country.
“Also, we have over 8 million mobile banking subscribers across the Ecobank Group. Our Ecobank Mobile App is unique, as it is one universal App available in 33 countries where we operate in Africa.”
According to the lender, it has so far set up EcobankPay Zones in over 50 locations in different parts of the country. These are digital hubs enabling businesses within a location.
Akinwuntan said also that the banks’ strategy includes collaborating with Fintechs to surmount the financial inclusion and adoption of financial services challenge.
Quoting the EFInA Fintech 2018 report, he said that there is an increased partnership with Fintechs as Nigeria is currently home to over 250 Fintechs and approximately 60percent of them are supporting payments and lending capabilities. The cumulative Fintech funding by banks in Nigeria has surpassed $250m in the past five years, he pointed out.
In a goodwill message at the financial inclusion forum, Musa Jimoh, Deputy Director, Payment System Department of the CBN lamented about the cost of financial services. He said the cost of the service is one of the reasons why people refuse to embrace some banking services including mobile money.
“So we came out with guidelines on bank charges to make sure that we regulate the charges and we have also come out with some other initiatives under the cashless scheme to see how we can bring people to the digital channel and reduce the high cost of operations in the bank,” Jimoh said. Adding that the apex bank is pushing out a lot of initiatives to ensure the mobile money operators grow and help deepen financial inclusion.
