Mobile payments value surpasses N139bn - NDIC

The Managing Director of the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC), Alhaji Umaru Ibrahim, has said the transaction volume and value of mobile payments stood at 14,947,600 and N139.6 billion respectively as at December 31, 2013.

The NDIC CEO, speaking at a Roundtable on Mobile Payment Services in Nigeria organised by the NDIC in Lagos last week, said the mobile payment initiative presented new challenges.

Umaru said the mobile payment platform can impact positively on financial inclusion, adding that there is indeed a link between deposit insurance and financial inclusion.

He said: “Deposit insurance is vital to financial inclusion because the poor need assurance that their deposits are safe and available at all times they have need for them. Sound and reliable deposit-taking entities, backed by deposit insurance for small deposits accessible to all, are therefore essential to financial inclusion. This helps in attracting the unbanked to formal banking services.”

He said that the NDIC was supporting the Cash-Lite policy of the CBN because of the need to “modernise Nigeria’s payment system; reduce the cost of banking services, drive financial inclusion, improve effectiveness of monetary policy, reduce the high security and safety risks, reduce high subsidy, foster transparency and curb corruption and ultimately meet the federal government’s Vision 2020.”