While working on a licence to serve as a Payment Service Bank from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the management of MTN Nigeria Communications Plc, on Wednesday informed the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) that it has obtained a full licence to distribute financial services across the country from the apex bank.
The service will be offered through its subsidiary, Yello Digital Financial Services Limited (YDFS), which has been granted a full super-agent licence, through which the group will launch its fintech strategy.
As part of this strategy, according to Uto Ukpanah, its company secretary, MTN Nigeria will convert its existing airtime agents and recruit other small businesses to distribute financial services.
Before now, YDFS had in December 2018 received Approval in Principle for the service, after which it began conducting a pilot project preparatory to meeting the conditions for a full licence.
The super-agent licence, the statement noted, “enables us to extend access to financial services to a much broader group of Nigerians. This forms part of our commitment to contribute towards the achievement of Nigeria’s financial inclusion goals.”
Through the network established by YDFS, MTN Nigeria says, is poised “to broaden the availability of financial services for the under-served across the country.
“This marks a very important first step in leveraging our infrastructure to scale our fintech initiatives,” the statement stressed, adding that the PSB licence enhances deepening of its range of finance to under-served communities.