Over the years, there have been concerted efforts by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), deposit money banks, fintechs and other stakeholders in the industry to bring about a drastic reduction in the number of Nigerian adults who cannot access formal financial services. The importance of financial inclusion with the attendant benefits of raising the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), improvement in the standard of living of citizens and increase in per capita income among other benefits cannot be over-emphasized.
Agent Banking, a system of providing banking services such as cash deposit and withdrawal, bill payments, funds transfer and BVN enrolment to customers through licensed agents outside the bank branch has been identified as a major enabler of last mile access to formal financial services by the unbanked and underbanked population in Nigeria which as at 2010 stood at a whopping 39.2million individuals and 46.3 percent of the total adult population of the country.
The Financial Systems Strategy 20:2020 launched by the Central Bank of Nigeria has as one of its focal points seeks to reduce the amount of people without access to financial services to a maximum of 20 percent of the adult population by year 2020.
In 2018 the Shared Agent Network Expansion Facility(SANEF) was created with the primary objective of accelerating financial inclusion in Nigeria. The core objective of SANEF is the creation of 250,000 agent points by the end of 2019 and another 250,000 by the end of 2020 making a total of 500,000 agents in two years.
In response to the needs of under banked or unbanked Nigerians, companies such as Itex set up Agent Networks to drive inclusion through nationwide deployment of mobile money agents.
This informs the introduction of the upcoming Itex Agent Banking Summit which is expected to bring together all relevant stakeholders in the agent banking space to reflect and discuss ways and means to ensure the sustainable growth and spread of agent banking in Nigeria as part of the strategy for achieving the financial inclusion goals of the financial system strategy. Deliberations at the summit are intended to culminate into formulation of key recommendations for implementation by stakeholders.
Speaking at a pre-event press briefing in Lagos, Ernest Uduje, MD/CEO of Itex said that the upcoming Agent Banking Innovation Summit is designed for the purpose of developing innovative means to ensure the sustainable growth and spread of agent banking in Nigeria as part of the strategy for achieving the financial inclusion goals of the financial system strategy.
“The summit will feature a keynote and lead speeches as well as discussion by a panel made up of industry experts. There will also be an interactive session where delegates which will comprise of representatives of banks, payment service providers, regulators, agent network managers, merchants and agents and other stakeholders will be able to make contributions and share perspectives,” he said.
According to him, “discussions will range from the efforts of CBN and other stakeholders to expand the frontiers of shared agent banking network, to Nigeria’s experience in building agent network to a point of saturation. This will also include the formulation of key recommendations that will translate to a positive impact in the Nigeria payments industry.”
Also speaking, Frederick Igbenedion, executive chairman, Itex said the company continues to look for coordinated ways to support the ability of our agents and partners to enhance their efficiency in the delivery of financial inclusion services.
“This Summit therefore follows from our pattern of driving innovations while always interacting with other stakeholders in order to design and deploy the most efficient and effective solutions to meet our collective goals to better serve general populace,” he said.
According to the organisers, the maiden edition, asides from setting the tone for subsequent ones will deliberate on the role that innovation can play in driving the attainment of the goals of agent banking. Stakeholders in the agent banking value chain must be innovative in the way services are designed and deployed for specific targets in order to meet the needs of those targets.
To address these issues at the summit, key players in the industry including Aishah Ahmad, the deputy governor, financial systems stability, Central Bank of Nigeria, Sam Okojere, director, payment system management, Central Bank of Nigeria, Ronke Kuye, CEO, SANEF, Wole Oyeniran, technology strategy &transformation Leader, Deloitte West Africa will be there to share insights with delegates.
