MTN gets authorization to provide banking services in Nigeria
The bank will be known as MoMo Payment Service Bank Limited.
South African Telecommunications giant, MTN Group Limited has been given approval by Nigerian regulators to run a payment service bank.
The bank will be known as MoMo Payment Service Bank Limited, the telco said.
It would largely offer services offered by commercial banks except granting credit and processing foreign exchange transactions.
“The date of commencement will be communicated to the CBN (Central Bank of Nigeria) in accordance with its requirements,” MTN said in a note to the Nigerian Exchange.
The approval is said to have come after over two years of waiting for the permit.
“We want to leverage the financial inclusion drive. We plan to give people who don’t have bank accounts or even ATM cards the opportunity to be able to do banking services.
And we are leveraging on our size. When we have subscribers of over 70 million spread across Nigeria with our infrastructural spread, we are well-positioned to cover everywhere. That’s exactly what we want to achieve,” MTN Nigeria CEO, Karl Toriola is quoted to have said in an interview with Nigerian publication Premium Times.
In November 2021, MTN Nigeria and Airtel Africa, Nigeria’s biggest two telecoms were given preliminary approval by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to run payment service banks.
Now given final approval, predictions are that the two telcos will be looking to tap Nigeria’s unbanked adult population of 38 million, a move that will put them against traditional banks in getting a piece of the market.
