Following the recent granting of full Super Agent Licence by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to MTN Nigeria earlier in the week, indications are rife that it may reactivate the massive rollout of services at the same time across the federation to mop up markets ahead of other rivals who are yet to get operating licences.
Recall that on May 16, 2001, MTN became the first GSM network to make a call following the globally lauded Nigerian GSM auction conducted by the Nigerian Communications Commission earlier that year.
MTN immediately launched full commercial operations beginning with Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt and key cities at random without waiting full consolidation in any city before hitting the other.
The company’s rollout strategic then was to rollout in every known city first before increasing infrastructure depending on traffic per city or area of rollout.
Analysts said the idea shut MTN to the top as leaders in subscriber base and outreach. Otherwise, whereas other networks were trying to deepen infrastructure investments in a particular city, MTN was painting every other city yellow by the day.
Already, it has set up the special purpose vehicle, the Yello Digital Financial Services Limited (YDFS), saying the Super Agent licence will enable MTN to convert its existing airtime agents and recruit other small businesses to distribute financial services.
Analysts say with this singular model of deploying fintech agents, MTN Nigeria is as good as having covered the federation because its airtime agents are ‘everywhere you go’.
Only yesterday, the Global System for mobile Telecommunications Association (GSMA), rolled out its statistics, saying huge opportunities await Fintech’s investors in emerging markets like Nigeria, Kenya, and South Africa as the trio hold huge potential for fintech innovations.
GSMA further revealed that already 395.7 million registered mobile money accounts now exist in the region and that nearly nine in 10 registered mobile money accounts are in East and West Africa.
GSMA further recalled that in Nigeria, regulatory reforms introduced in October 2018 opened the window for mobile operators to obtain licences to operate payment service banks (PSBs), while in Ethiopia, an ambitious financial inclusion strategy has been attracting investment into mobile money services.
Just like it covered hundreds of towns ahead of rivals in 2001 with its massive rollout policy, MTN Nigeria may tow familiar part in the mop up of fintech market across the federation sooner than later.
