FirstBank’s Payment Card Issuance Hits 10 Million

will then own and maintain the meters. They will also retain billing and collection activities while collection accounts will be backed up by irrevocable payment orders.

The ultimate goal however would be to provide meters to consumers but with the financial burden of such venture taken off the shoulders of the Discos.

In terms of the benefits of the MSPs option, NERC said: “A large number of customers will be metered quickly in NESI, issues of electricity theft and meter bypass will be eliminated due to enhanced vigilance by MSPs, increased revenue protection for Discos due to focus on billing and collection, guaranteed repayment arrangement will encourage financiers to support MSPs.”

It however stated there were other considerations such as Discos’ reluctance to cede control over the meter as part of their assets and financiers possible request for more stringent guarantees and conditions for participation in the scheme, which could stand in the way of this option. So, in that sense, you can argue that the playing field is not level for all kinds of investors,” Hilary-Nwokonko explained.

He argued that even the category of investors favoured by the new policy would be forced to invest across the value chain.

According to him, the joint venture companies, which have focused on export projects, will be forced by the new policy to invest in domestic gas utilisation project.

“So, the existing solutions to develop gas have created their own problems, including favouring those who are already producing crude oil against those who want to develop gas. There is a lack of framework for gas development, which has created uncertainty and clearly hampered development,” he added. FirstBank of Nigeria Limited said it has emerged as the first financial institution in Nigeria and West-Africa to issue 10 million cards to customers across the sub-region.

This makes FirstBank the second bank in Africa to achieve this feat.

According to the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, First Bank of Nigeria Limited, Adesola Adeduntan, delivering this feat was a testament to the bank’s brand promise to put its customers first and continuously improve its business to serve them better. The FirstBank boss added: “We can attest that our customers have become more technology savvy and we will continue to encourage this attitude with our commitment to world class service delivery as we work to ensure optimal performance and availability of all our alternative channels, to meet and exceed the expectations of our customers.

“The bank currently processes over 78 per cent of its customer transactions through self-service channels.”

He further explained that the accomplishment was reminiscent of a similar milestone achieved two years ago when the bank in December, 2015 and May 2016, was named the first financial institution in the country to achieve sustained alternative channels transaction volumes of 100 million transactions in December 2015 and May 2016.

FirstBank said it has sustained its edge in payment card issuance with its Instant issuance/Instant activation technology, which was pioneered about seven years ago.

This, it stated informed its consistency in maintaining the highest active card ratio in the industry.

The bank also noted in a statement that it recently won three Interswitch awards in electronic payment as the fastest mobile penetration bank across Africa, the highest card transacting bank and the highest issuer of Verve cards.

These, it said were clear indications that “the giant strides taken by the subSaharan leading bank brand towards fostering its banking technologies are well aligned to the fast-paced technological advancement in today’s ever evolving financial ecosystem.”

Last week, First Bank announced the acquisition of the remaining shares in FBNBank DRC Limited (FBNBank DRC), making the bank FirstBank’s wholly owned subsidiary.

The move, according to the bank, followed its initial investment in FBNBank DRC (formerly Banque Internationale de Credit) in 2011, when it acquired a 75per cent stake in FBNBank DRC.

The bank said in a statement that following the acquisition, FBNBank DRC has continued to expand its product offerings, deepen its customer base and is currently ranked amongst the top five banks serving the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), a country with a population of more than 82 million.

Commenting on the acquisition, Adeduntan said: “This transaction underscores our belief in sub-Saharan Africa’s growth and our focus on providing a differentiated banking experience throughout Africa. This acquisition further consolidates our already robust African footprint and positions FirstBank to take advantage of emerging opportunities in DRC and the sub-region. This increased investment by FirstBank in FBNBank DRC – the 3rd largest banking entity in the group, will surely accrete value for shareholders.”

Also in his remark, the CEO, FBNBank DRC, Mr. Akeem Oladele pointed out that with 100 per cent holding by FirstBank, FBNBank DRC now has much greater flexibility to deliver differentiated propositions by fully tapping into the resources and innovative capabilities of FirstBank in eight countries, on three continents.