In late 2018, Nigeria stated it could permit non-financial corporations to use for cellular banking licences — a part of a cash revolution aimed toward reworking Africa’s greatest financial system and unlocking the continent’s largest unbanked inhabitants.
The transfer would allow cellular telecoms suppliers together with MTN and rival Airtel to faucet into the roughly 60m Nigerians who lack financial institution accounts, in a rustic the place most transactions are made utilizing money.
However two years after Nigeria’s central financial institution introduced the brand new regime, little has modified and neither Airtel nor MTN has acquired a licence — though two smaller telcos and a funds firm had been granted licences in August. Observers blame the delay on lobbying by banks which might be cautious of ceding any territory to cellular suppliers. The central financial institution declined to remark.
– FT