Nigeria cashless initiative and financial inclusion may begin to gain traction like others of its peers across Africa as MTN Nigeria, Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS), alongside 16 partner banks and mobile telecommunication operators (telcos) recently came together for the re-launch of mCASH in Lagos.
mCASH is a mobile payment system for making low-value retail payments designed to extend e-payment options to low-income buyers and sellers who deal in cash. The cashless initiative was first launched in 2016.
Ferdi Moolman, CEO, MTN Nigeria, represented by Usoro Usoro, the general manager, Mobile Financial Services, MTN, said when organisations work together for a common goal to serve, initiative like this achieve better outcomes.
“It is incredible how much the world has changed and continues to evolve with new ideas and technologies. Today, Africa is increasingly embracing new ways of payment for retail consumption and transactions. For those of us in the telecoms industry, this presented us with the question; how do we fully utilise all available options to provide standardised and efficient mobile cashless services for micro-payment and collections; the answer is mCASH,” Moolman said.
Adebisi Shonubi, managing director and CEO of NIBSS, said mCASH initiative was borne out of the need to enhance financial inclusion in Nigeria. mCASH is to extend e-payment benefits to payers and merchants who operate at the local levels especially the small and medium scale business owners.
“To ensure the paradigm shift, we had to promote an ecosystem partnership consisting of banks and telecommunication companies thereby birthing what has become a novel collaboration anywhere in the world; a service not driven by one bank or telco but which is ecosystem driven,” Shonubi said.
This USSD-based service delivers funds to merchants’ accounts based on USSD technology. mCASH can be access from any mobile network operator by dialling *402*Seller’s code*Amount# on a mobile phone to pay accepting merchants.
