MTN Nigeria, Airtel PSBs to create 1m direct jobs

Following the granting of approval in principle (AIP) by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), MTN Nigeria and Airtel now have about six months to become licenced Payment Service Banks (PSBs).

Apart from helping to include 40 million adult Nigerians outside the financial services industry, the move could create over 1 million direct jobs in 2022.

MTN Nigeria and Airtel combined boast 124.6 million voice subscribers and 96.1 data subscribers. Apart from that, MTN Nigeria through its MoMo Super Agent network has amassed 230,000 agents across the country, and given its experience as the second-largest mobile money operator in Africa, after Safaricom, deploying the same service in Nigeria would not be so difficult for the telco.

The telco is expected to grow its agent network from 230,000 in order to deepen its mobile money presence across the country. Airtel would plug into its large population of airtime resellers to quickly grow its agent network. This is the same strategy it deployed in nearly all the 14 African countries where it currently operates mobile money services.

The model would also attract hundreds of young unemployed Nigerians providing the telco with over 100,000 banking agents. MTN Nigeria and Airtel could also be the push Globacom needs to launch its mobile money operations after one year of securing the licence.

The CBN wants to provide access to financial services to 95 percent of Nigerians who are not financially included by 2024. In the past, the CBN has pushed the commercial banks to lead the financial inclusion campaign and the result has not been as the apex bank expected.