Financial Services Agents in the South-South
geo-political zone in Nigeria have called on the Central Bank of Nigeria and
the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement Systems Plc, NIBSS to address respectively
Stamp duty charges issues on point-of-sales transactions and the Bank
Verification Number, BVN challenges they face in the course of their
operations.
This was part of the major feedback at the forum
hosted in Port Harcourt, hosted by Enhancing Financial Innovation and Access,
EFINA, in collaboration with the Shared Agency Network Expansion Facility,
SANEF.
The Agents also called on the security officials to
cooperate with them and reduce the incidence of harassment and undue arrests as
a result of service delivery issues, which requires thorough investigations before
arriving at conclusions.
Stamp Charges & Other Matters
They believed that the Nigerian Police Force should
work closely with the Association of the Mobile Money Agents in the country, to
ensure the due process is applied in terms of allegations and issues that may
arise between the agents and customers.
In response, the Head, Financial Inclusion Secretariat
of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Mr. Joseph Attah assured the Agents that the
issue of stamp duty charges is under review.
Mr. Attah also stated that on the service delivery
issues and BVN enrolment issues, the CBN would explore facilitating a joint
stakeholders meeting between EFINA, SANEF, The Financial Services Agents, Banks
and Fintechs to explore lasting solutions.
In his remarks on the "Role of Government in Deepening
Financial Inclusion," Mr. Joseph Attah said finance is critical to national
development, as he asserted that "Nations develop faster when there is
increased financial penetration.
He informed the stakeholders at the event that the
roadmap to attaining a financial inclusion level of 80% for adults was still
intact and said the current exclusion rate was 36.8%, dropping from 46.3%.
The CEO of SANEF Mrs. Ronke Kuye, in her remarks
informed the agents that the Zonal forum across the 6 geo-political zones was
designed to deepen financial inclusion in the country.
Giving further insight into the SANEF activities Mrs.
Uche Uzoebu, Head Distribution, said the focus was to widen the financial
services points across the country, with 500,000 agents by 2020.
Mrs. Uzoebu also added that SANEF was exploring widening the pool of
products for Agents to experience and market to customers, for example, the
micro-insurance policy.
On his part, M.r Geoffrey Chukwuneye of the Nigerian Inter-Bank
Settlement Systems, in his presentation said NIBSS was committed to
driving the process of achieving 100m BVNs by 2024, which is the target set by
the Central Bank of Nigeria.
SIPs: An Assessment
Speaking on the Social Investment Programme of the Federal Government,
Mr Emmanuel Okoegwale believed the Financial Services agents had huge
opportunities to provide services to Nigerians that are beneficiaries of the
Trader Moni, Market Moni to even the 150,000 cooks that have been engaged for
the Home Grown School Feeding Programme.
He gave the example of 50,000 people paid their Conditional Cash
Transfer, CCT, provisions but could not access the money because of their
location.
A member of the Association of Mobile Money Agents in Nigeria Mr. Obioha
Otti in a presentation identified the following challenges facing financial
services agents, which include;
- Harassment by Security forces
- Service
disruptions
- Lack of
Adequate Training
- Poor
communication with financial institutions
- Paucity of funds
He called for collaboration between the Financial Services Agents,
Security forces, financial institutions, Fintechs, and regulators to deepen
financial inclusion.
Mr. Henry Chukwu, the Network Specialist
for EFINA, informed the agents that the regional stakeholder meetings were
designed to broaden the conversation and engagements on ways to improve access
to financial services in the country, as the countdown to the year 2020 begins
with the target of a 20% financial exclusion rate.
The next regional financial services agent
forum will hold in Kano State in the North-West region.
