Glo to drive financial inclusion via its MoneyMaster PSB

By Chinenye Anuforo, Lagos

Telecommunications operator Globacom has said it will be engaging over 100,000 agents across Nigeria to deepen financial inclusion through its Moneymaster Payment Service Bank (PSB).

The financial services subsidiary commenced business recently with the overarching objective to drive the Central Bank of Nigeria’s mandate of 95 per cent financial inclusion by 2024.

The Head of Product & Marketing, Esaie Diei, Money Master PSB’s Head of Product & Marketing, Esaie Diei, announced this whilst hosting captains of industry, Nigeria’s business elite and select business associates to an exquisite evening themed Pushing The Frontiers: An Evening With Glo which held in Lagos recently.

Diei said Moneymaster will be leveraging mobile phones, PoS, and the web to provide financial services to millions of Nigerians that are out of the financial system. Moneymaster’s launch completes the entry of all mobile network operators in Nigeria into the financial services business through their subsidiaries.

While noting that MoneyMaster will disrupt and revolutionise the financial industry in the same way that Globacom revolutionised the telecoms industry with cutting-edge technology and unique products when it started operations in 2003, Diei said, the PSB will be leveraging on its pan-Nigerian spread and pervasive agents’ footprint in the rural and urban areas as it begins its massive roll-out.

“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. With 133.5 million bank accounts in Nigeria as of December 2021 according to figures released by the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS) and with only 54 million BVNs registered as of April 10, 2022, there is a huge gap of about 79 million Nigerians and potential for PSBs like MoneyMaster to help bring many unbanked and under-banked into the financial services ecosystem.

So, as Moneymaster, what we are bringing to the market is a simple solution, ‘G-Kala’, which turns your phone into your wallet. With the ‘G-Kala’, you can receive cash from any mobile app, you can move money to other accounts.

“We are going to build a well-spread agent network across Nigeria with over 100,000 agents. We are also going to deploy kiosks across the country. As we speak now, thousands of kiosks are ready to be deployed. Our agents stand a chance to get additional revenue as they get SIM activation, registration incentive, and transaction incentive”, Diei said.