The Managing Director of leading e-payment systems group, Xpress Payment Solution Limited, Mr. Oluwadare Owolabi, has revealed that the key hurdle facing penetration of payment system vision (2020) has remained weak acceptability by Nigerians.
However, he was quick to aver that one of the ways to beat the challenge in order to deepen the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) cash-less policy is to work on the policy of Agent Banking to grow as the players have all it takes to drive e-payment penetration.
In his presentation at the Lagos DigitalPay Expo, Owolabi argued that despite launch of the cash-less society policy since 2013, mobile money penetration in the country still stands at a paltry one per cent.
According to him, “Mobile money penetration in the country still stands at a paltry one per cent even after five years of operation, compared to penetration levels of 60 per cent and 40 per cent respectively for Kenya and Ghana (GSMA, 2018).”
He advised all relevant government agencies to encourage the Agent Banking initiative “by creating points where people can go to any time of the day to cash-in and cash-out, and as well pass transactions into the platform.”
Owolabi noted that the cash-less policy or Payment System Vision (2020) had reduced time spent on banking activities, saying consumers who rely more on digital payments have detached themselves from the crisis of late fees payment, carrying less cash and ending cash theft.
