By Alex C
Globacom, Nigeria’s national telecommunications carrier is boosting cashless policy and financial inclusion with the launch of Glo Xchange, a Mobile Money Agent Network that is aimed at accelerating the uptake of mobile money services in the country.
Glo Xchange was launched by Globacom in partnership with three licensed mobile money operators, FirstMonie, Ecobank and Stanbic IBTC in Lagos recently.
Godwin Emefiele, governor, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), in a statement, said the initiative marks the beginning of the deeper collaboration between the financial industry and the telecommunications sector. He congratulated Globacom for launching the first mobile money Super Agent Network in Nigeria, saying it is a win-win situation for all stakeholders.
Kamal Shonibare, Globacom’s head of corporate sales, said Glo Xchange will avail the mobile money sector of the much needed agent network across the entire country, as well as the technology platform required for seamless mobile money transactions.
He said the initiative will provide the partner banks on the project with the telecom company’s extensive network of 150 Glo World & Glo Zone shops, over 35,000 Glo Dealer and sub dealer outlets and over 400 Con Oil filling stations across the country. He added that this has positioned the Glo Xchange platform for phenomenal success from its first day of operation. The initiative is also leveraging on the Association of Community pharmacists of Nigeria (ACPN) with their over 7,000 outlets.
Shonibare noted that partnering banks and Globacom will collaborate to ensure that mobile money reaches the critical mass of the people across the country, leveraging on the parties’ extensive retail market experience and customer-base to build an unprecedented mobile money distribution chain across Nigeria.
“The obvious push to reduce the physical movement of cash during business transactions in the economy has stimulated the “marriage” between telecoms operators and the banks, which invariably led to the birth of Glo Xchange”, he remarked.
He said Glo Xchange offers a robust platform to provide mobile money service to both banked and unbanked Nigerians, enabling existing and potential customers of partner banks to carry out transactions under the three key areas of banking transactions – deposits, withdrawals and transfers. Based on the agreement with the partner banks, Globacom will recruit mobile money agents, train them and also provide management services for the partner banks, making available its network infrastructure to support mobile financial transactions.