Agency Banking Has Revolutionised Nigerian Economy—NIBSS

**Reiterates the Role of Technology in Financial, Payment Innovation

By Modupe Gbadeyanka

The Managing Director of the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS), Mr Premier Oiwoh, has reiterated the role of technology in the provision of financial and payment innovation.

“We are aware that digital financial inclusion enables access to financial services and advances the economic progress in underserved market segments.

“In ensuring that the financially excluded are efficiently and effectively catered for within the ecosystem, we have created a platform-based payment system to enable the players in the ecosystem to innovate and thrive,” Mr Oiwoh said ahead of the International Financial Inclusion Conference (IFIC2022) scheduled for November 24 and 25, 2022, in Abuja.

He said over the years, the industry has leveraged cutting-edge technology to design and deliver financial products and services to drive financial inclusion.

At the programme themed Financial Inclusion for all: Scaling Innovative Digital Models, participants will examine the opportunities and identify concrete solutions and interventions that would ensure the achievement of the nation’s financial inclusion objectives./

The conference is the first to be held since the country launched its National Financial Inclusion Strategy (NFIS) in 2012.

NIBSS, in collaboration with other financial services providers, has made huge investments to provide affordable Digital Financial Services (DFS) to the unbanked and financially excluded members of the Nigerian population.

In line with the National Financial Inclusion initiative, the timely delivery of financial services through agency banking has also revolutionised the economy, as this has boosted job creation through financial entrepreneurship, skills acquisition, digitalisation of the society and increased GDP, as each state’s economic activity is increased with a multiplier effect.

Among other innovative payment solutions created for financial inclusion, the introduction of the NIBSS Instant Payment (NIP) platform transformed the way Nigerians choose to pay for goods and services at all levels.

Leveraging on this, NIP has provided more opportunities for Financial Services Providers and other players within the ecosystem to innovate and provide more options to drive financial inclusion.

Also, through the initiative of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the Bank Verification Number (BVN) was developed to harmonise the financial services sector, improve banking operations and encourage financial inclusion.

With strong collaboration across the ecosystem, NIBSS has over the years facilitated the growth and proliferation of BVN with the commencement of remote offline BVN Enrolment by Agents for a wider reach. This is in addition to the recently launched ‘iGree’ BVN Consent Management Platform, for expanded financial inclusion and consumer protection.

In addition to the successful deployment of Biometric Scanners at no cost to financial services providers, inclusive of DMBs, super agents, MMOs for the purpose of remote BVN enrolment, NIBSS has implemented 100 per cent increase in monetary incentives paid to BVN enrolling agents to incentivise them for every new BVN successfully enrolled in a bid to drive sustainable financial inclusion.