Globacom on Monday announced the official launch of MoneyMaster PSB, its payment service bank business licensed by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to help provide financial services to millions of unbanked and underbanked Nigerians.
In a press statement released in Lagos, the digital solutions provider said, “our over-arching business objective remains to empower Nigerians by providing them with unlimited opportunities. MoneyMaster extends that objective as it targets the unbanked and under-banked with G-Kala its flagship product in order to deepen financial inclusion in Nigeria.”
MoneyMaster PSB will, along with other PSBs, facilitate payment and remittance services within Nigeria, accept deposits from individuals and small businesses, issue debit and prepaid cards, operate electronic wallets, inbound remittances, and carry out other services in line with CBN regulations. However, they are unable to grant loans to customers like commercial banks.
MoneyMaster is taking off with a huge advantage as it is expected to make use of Globacom’s pan-Nigeria spread and extensive agent footprint in the rural and urban areas to achieve its objective of massive roll-out. To open an account, all the customer needs to do is dial*995# then follow the prompts from a Glo line or from any other telecommunications network as MoneyMaster PSB is network agnostic.
Just as Globacom revolutionized the telecom industry with cutting-edge technology and unique products when it started operations in 2003, MoneyMaster PSB is positioned to redefine the payment service banks’ landscape while driving financial inclusion in Nigeria.
“One key feature of MoneyMaster’s G-kala product is that the customer’s phone number will be used as his or her account number. We are grateful to the CBN for the opportunity to deepen financial inclusion in Nigeria using our cutting-edge technology and vast network”, Globacom concluded.
As of the end of December last year, there were 133.5m bank accounts in Nigeria according to figures released by the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS). There were also only 54 million BVNs registered as of April 10, 2022. This shows a huge gap of about 79m Nigerians and the potential for PSBs like MoneyMaster to help bring many unbanked and under-banked into the financial services ecosystem.
