‘ Regulator should license MTN, Airtel to deepen mobile money’

TO scale up Nigeria’s mobile money market at the subregional front, the Central Bank of Nigeria ( CBN) should extend licences to MTN and Airtel.

The Head of GSMA Africa, Akinwale Goodluck, said this during a virtual interaction with some journalists at the weekend, while dissecting the recently- released ‘ State of the Industry Report on Mobile Money'.

Already, service providers including Globacom and 9mobile have been granted licence to operate mobile money service. Though penetration is still very low, analysts believe that the service has huge market potential in Nigeria.

The GSMA Head Africa said what is required to drive financial inclusion in Nigeria is the further liberalisation of the regulatory environment. “Importantly, it is necessary that a level playing field is created, that licences are extended to the other two big network operators in Nigeria, namely Airtel and MTN. Once we have all of them on board, I think we will see mobile money accelerate and we will see the kind of numbers and growth that we want. For now, Nigeria is lagging behind some of the other countries in West Africa like Ghana, Ivory Coast,” he said.

Goodluck informed that those countries are doing very well, which is a factor of their regulatory environment. He stressed that it is a factor of the commitment of the operators, “factor of the relationship between the mobile telecommunication sector and the financial and banking sector in these countries.” According to him, if potential mobile money uptakers do not get a sense that their mobile money accounts would allow them to transact with the generality of the people in Nigeria, “it may sort of curb appetite and limit the adoption. As long as the two biggest players in the market in Nigeria are excluded it would be very difficult to sell a mobile money proposition. “MTN and Airtel have significant mobile money experience in other markets in subSaharan Africa and I am sure they would bring that experience to Nigeria, but that in itself is not necessarily a limitation for the two telcos that have already gotten licences. It is a scale game and interoperability.”