Fidelity, NIPOST to drive financial inclusion via agent banking nationwide
Leading retail banking giant, Fidelity Bank Plc, Thursday in Abuja, sealed agency banking partnership with NIPOST as part of drive to deepen financial inclusion across the country.
Giving insights at the official launch of the Agency Banking Partnership with the Nigeria Postal Services (NIPOST) on how it will work, the Deputy Managing Director, Fidelity Bank Plc, Mohammed Balarabe revealed that the bank will provide banking services in 266 branches through its Agency Banking Partnership with NIPOST.
He said Fidelity Bank will be leveraging on the 1400 locations of NIPOST to provide banking services to many financially excluded Nigerians.
Balarabe, while appealing to Nigerians to take advantage of the opportunity, averred that “The partnership with NIPOST will lead to more development across the country through access to financial services provided by Fidelity Bank”.
In his remarks, the Divisional Head, Retail Bank, Richard Madiebo, assured customers of the bank and non customers alike, to embrace the new initiative as it promises a win-win for all and would guarantee more people being captured in the financial inclusion strategy.
According to him, the Agency Banking Partnership was a pacesetting effort of Fidelity Bank at providing financial services at the grassroots level to all categories of small and medium enterprises.
Responding, the Post Master General of the Federation, Bisi Adegbuyi said the new initiative would give NIPOST an opportunity to offer financial services to all Nigerians through its network of locations across the country.
Adegbuyi, who noted that globalisation coupled with growth in e-commerce has forced many postal administrations to explore ways of expanding their frontiers through collaboration with relevant stakeholders, stressed that the deal with Fidelity Bank will meet the emerging challenges in the rural banking sector.
He posited that the partnership with Fidelity Bank was part of their ways of re-engineering and reinventing NIPOST through collaborations with different stakeholders from the private and public sectors, while also leveraging on cutting edge technology to present an array of digital offerings aimed at meeting the divergent needs of their customers
In his remarks, the Head of Digital Financial Services, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Steven Ambore said innovative product like the Agency Banking Partnership will help to achieve the 80 percent financial inclusion target by 2020 set by the apex bank.
He pointed out that the revised national financial inclusion strategy was designed to leverage on technology to ensure the reduction in the 36.6m Nigerians without access to financial services and was therefore impressed with what Fidelity Bank was doing with the launch of the Agency Banking Partnership.
