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Nigeria’s biggest telecom companies are getting banking licenses

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Culled from the Quartz (By Alexander Onukwue)

Nigeria is increasingly liberalizing its financial services sector away from a total dependence on banks to include providers with different business models and distribution channels. The latest step in that evolution is the granting of ‘payment service bank’ licenses to MTN and Airtel, two of the country’s biggest providers of telecom services.

Both received final authorization from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in April, six months after an approval-in-principle was issued last November.

When their PSBs begin operations, MTN, and Airtel will not provide every type of banking service in Nigeria. They won’t be able to lend to or facilitate foreign exchange transfers for customers, for example.

But the license will “open the opportunity for expanding reach to more remote, lower income customers that banks have been unable to reach,” says Ashley Immanuel, the former CEO of EFInA, a group that publishes research on access to financial services in Nigeria.

What are payment service banks?

CBN introduced the PSB license in 2018, modeled after India’s payments banks, which were created by The Reserve Bank of India in 2015 to take banking to rural areas, serving migrant workers and low-income families. One of India’s six payments banks is owned by Airtel, another by Mukesh Ambani’s telecom giant, Jio.

Nigeria is following this playbook.

Its PSB license is a type of mobile money license reserved for non-bank institutions (including supermarket chains) that can demonstrate an ability to reach the rural areas, where two-thirds of the country’s 106 million adults live. While 45% of Nigerian adults have bank accounts, 36% are still completely financially excluded, EFInA’s report for 2020 (pdf) said.

PSBs offer deposits and withdrawals, cross-border remittances, and can issue debit cards, but not credit cards. 25% of their operations must be in rural areas.

Nigeria now has 5 PSBs, as MTN, and Airtel join Glo, and 9Mobile, also mobile network operators, in obtaining the coveted license (Glo and 9Mobile got theirs in 2020.) Each of them formed a subsidiary for this purpose: MoMo PSB, Smartcash PSB, Moneymaster PSB, and 9PSB respectively. A minimum capital of 5 billion naira ($13 million) is required to operate a PSB, according to the CBN’s guidelines (pdf).

Telcos can offer cost-effective financial services

There is some optimism for these telco-owned PSBs, given that four of the telcos have a combined 198 million active mobile phone subscribers. MTN, for example, has above 80% national coverage of the baseline 2G and 3G services that will power most PSB services through technologies like USSD and electronic wallets.

EFInA’s view, shared in an email to Quartz, is that telcos like MTN “have great potential to advance financial inclusion” by taking advantage of their large capital base, strong brand presence, technology, and ability to scale. A report by the GSM Association (pdf), an organization that tracks trends in mobile financial services across the world, projects that PSBs in Nigeria will be able to “deliver services cost-effectively in rural areas.”

Where banks have to charge prohibitive fees on low value transactions, hence discouraging the participation of poor customers, telcos can take advantage of the fact that those customers already use their voice (and, probably, data) services to add value.

But success in achieving financial inclusion isn’t a foregone conclusion for these telcos. Assessments by EFInA and GMSA agree that big awareness drives in the target areas will be needed to get consumer buy-in. Strategic partnerships will also play a role as each cannot operate in silos; partnering with banks, micro credit lenders, and insurance companies will be key aspects of long-term success.

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NBA pick Khaman Maluach Hoping to ‘Change the Narrative’ About Africa

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Immediately after getting drafted, Maluach was asked: “So many people, when they think about Africa, think about strife, think about war, think about not so great things about the continent, let alone South Sudan. How much of a responsibility do you think you have in changing perceptions of what people think Africa is in terms of thinking more about the resources, thinking about the people of Africa and South Sudan, specifically?”

Maluach’s native country, South Sudan, is undergoing a humanitarian crisis. His family fled the country to a suburb of Kampala, Uganda, in search of safety and opportunity during the South Sudan crisis. He now hopes to change the narrative about the region by highlighting its good parts on the world stage.

“I think about showing them the good parts of Africa,” Maluach said at the press conference after he was drafted. “I’m thinking about showing them the great places in Africa, like Kigali, whether it’s Senegal, whether it’s the safaris in Africa, and showing them the cultures we have and the people we have, which is different from the stuff they see on TV. I just want to change the narrative, the narrative of our people and how they see my continent.”

Maluach was born in Rumbek, once an important city in South Sudan that was ravaged by the country’s civil war. The 7’2″ center’s road to success was far from easy. The nearest basketball court to his house was nearly an hour’s walk away and usually packed. Moreover, he played his first game in Crocs, not basketball shoes. But his dedication was enough to catch the eye of local coaches Wal Deng and Aketch Garang.

Through the effort that he put in, Maluach made it to the NBA Academy Africa in Saly, Senegal, then to the Duke Blue Devils, and now the Suns. He hopes the moment inspires kids on the continent.

“Living in Africa, I had the whole continent on my back. Giving hope to young kids,” he said after the Suns selected him No. 10 overall.

Maluach considers basketball a gift God gave him, and hopes to finish off his NBA career as a Hall of Famer.

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Nigeria’s first female fighter pilot Kafayat Sanni excels in Ghana

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After making history as Nigeria’s first female fighter pilot, Flt. Lt. Kafayat Sanni has emerged as the Best Allied Student and won the Best Assistant Commandant Paper award at the Ghana Armed Forces Command and Staff College, Accra, according to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).

In a statement released on Saturday and cited by NAN, the Director of Public Relations and Information of the Nigerian Air Force, Air Commodore Ehimen Ejodame, said the awards were presented on Friday during the College graduation ceremony which had in attendance top military personnel and dignitaries from across Africa.

Ejodame recalled how Sanni first made the news in 2019 after being decorated as the Nigerian Air Force’s first female fighter pilot following her pilot training in the U.S.

“Since then, she has flown the Alpha Jet as well as undertaken training sorties on the Super Mushshak as a prolific instructor pilot, producing and mentoring younger pilots for the NAF,” Ejodame said.

“Her outstanding performance at GAFCSC not only symbolises personal excellence and resilience but also underscores Nigeria’s growing leadership in regional defence and commitment to gender inclusion in the armed forces.

“This remarkable achievement further reflects the Nigerian Air Force’s strategic investment in human capital development under the visionary leadership of the Chief of the Air Staff, Air Marshal Hasan Abubakar,” he said.

In 2017, Sanni emerged as the overall best pilot at the Nigerian Air Force’s 401 training school before she moved to the United States to train at the U.S. Aviation Leadership program.

Upon completion, Sanni returned to Nigeria, where she, alongside 12 new fighter pilots, was decorated.

As Sanni became the first female fighter pilot in the 55-year history of the Nigerian Air Force, her colleague, Tolulope Arotile, also became the Force’s first female combat helicopter pilot.

“It is a privilege for me to be winged as the first female fighter pilot in the Nigerian Air Force,” Sanni said after being decorated.

Sanni said at the time she had always wanted to be a fighter pilot, and “I was just lucky to be chosen.”

“It was also my choice. It was what I wanted to do. And I felt that everyone is not supposed to fold their arms and watch what is happening in our country.

“Everyone could always play their part. So, I did not think there was any reason for me to think that it is not possible for me to actually fly the jet because there was no female that ever flew the jet. I believe I could achieve it and I did,” she said.

She then went on to advise younger girls to “never say no to opportunities.”

“They should always strive to be the best and put in their efforts. They should never look at anything that seems to want to overpower or overshadow them. For me, you can always attempt things and if they do not work out well; fine. But at every point in time, you just need to put in your best.”

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Hotel groups Hilton and Marriot announce African expansion plans

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U.S. hotel chains Hilton and Marriott have announced African expansion drives to tap into the continent’s rapid tourism growth.

Rising business and leisure travel on the continent has made it increasingly attractive for multinational companies and Hilton said on Wednesday that it plans to more than triple its African portfolio to more than 160 hotels.

The company plans to enter Angola, Ghana and Benin for the first time while returning to Madagascar and Tanzania, its statement said without providing a specific time horizon for the expansion plans.

Marriott expects to add 50 properties by 2027, it said on Wednesday. Those will include entry into five new countries: Cape Verde, Ivory Coast, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Madagascar and Mauritania.

The group’s existing African portfolio encompasses nearly 150 properties and 26,000 rooms across 20 countries and 22 brands.

Airlines have also increased their African capacity.

Emirates now offers 161 weekly flights across Africa, recently adding daily services to Entebbe and Addis Ababa. United Airlines launched a direct Washington-Dakar route in May and Delta will begin a seasonal daily flight to Accra in December.

International arrivals to the continent rose 9% year on year in the first quarter of 2025, the United Nations World Tourism Organization says, 16% above the same period of pre-pandemic 2019.

That momentum is translating into economic impact. Tourism accounts for between 3% and 7% of gross domestic product in countries such as Kenya, Morocco and South Africa, and up to 15% in tourism-heavy economies such as Namibia, World Bank and national statistics show.

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