The Central Bank of Nigeria has given Nigeria’s largest telecommunications provider, MTN a green light to offer commercial banking services in Nigeria.
This comes four months after an approval-in-principle granted to the company in November 2021.
Following the approval, MTN will now be able to offer services offered by commercial banks except granting credit and processing foreign exchange transactions. This includes deposits, payments, issuing of debit and credit cards, and remittance service within Nigeria.
The firm said the new outfit will be known as MoMo Payment Service Bank Limited.
We want to leverage the financial inclusion drive. We plan to give people who don’t have bank accounts or even ATM cards the opportunity to be able to do banking services. We are leveraging on our size. When we have subscribers of over 70 million spread across Nigeria with our infrastructural spread, we are well-positioned to cover everywhere.
Karl Toriola, CEO of MTN Nigeria
MTN Nigeria saw revenue climb to record $3.69 billion last year, with profit leaping 45.5 percent to $652 million.
MTN Group last month announced plans to reduce its shares in MTN Nigeria by over 10% as it seeks to broaden the local shareholder base, and attract new investors to fuel expansion plans.
MTN Group Limited is a South African multinational mobile telecommunications company, operating in many African and Asian countries. Its head office is in Johannesburg. As of December 2020, MTN recorded 280 million subscribers, making it the 8th largest mobile network operator in the world, and the largest in Africa. Active in over 20 countries, one-third of the company’s revenue comes from Nigeria, where it holds about 35% market share.
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