Stakeholders at Enhancing Financial Innovation & Access (EFInA) have identified effective agent acquisition strategy as critical to the success of agent banking.
Frederick Eijkman, founding director of PEP Intermedius in Kenya, who said this at EFInA forum, also said agent management (including having the appropriate commission and incentive structure), liquidity management and having a robust transaction platform were also critical.
In Kenya, he said PEP-owned agents were visited by a supervisor daily to ensure that they were effectively managing their floats. EFInA hosted innovation forum titled ‘Deepening Financial Inclusion through Agent Banking.’
The event was attended by deposit money banks, microfinance banks, mobile money operators, mobile network operator’s industry regulators, and agent network organisations, among others.
With a growing emphasis on agent banking to provide financial services to customers, as evidenced in countries like Brazil, Columbia, and Pakistan, EFInA recognises the huge potential for agent banking to significantly increase access to a range of financial services, including savings, payments, transfers and insurance for the unbanked and under-banked population.
The key objectives of the forum were to share ideas on how to ensure that agent banking successfully deepens financial inclusion in Nigeria, through a clear understanding of the Central Bank of Nigeria’s agent banking regulations and peer learning.
Speaking at the forum, Modupe Ladipo, CEO, EFInA, said “agent banking is one of EFInA’s key strategic areas to support its overall objective of promoting financial inclusion in Nigeria,” saying “proximity to a bank is the top criteria for choosing a bank for the banked and one of the top three barriers to having a bank account for the unbanked.”
HOPE MOSES-ASHIKE
