Facts have emerged revealing that many money deposit (MDBs) banks in Nigeria led by Guaranty Trust Bank (GTB) are clearly against the planned licensing of telecommunications companies as Payment Service Banks (PSBs).
This was made public vide a new report by GTB titled; Nigeria Macro-Economic and Banking Sector Themes for 2019.
The bank said such licence will among other things; put MDBs in a tight corner through stiff competition with PSBs who are in control of latest technology to disgrace traditional banking institutions through tailored innovative e-payment platforms using their networks.
According to the report, “A more compelling threat, however, relates to the recent decision by the CBN to license Payment Service Banks (PSBs) to facilitate transactions in remittance services, microsavings and withdrawal services in rural areas.”
Though GTB report was quick to agree that the new move will also deepen customers telecoms experience, digitalisation drive of the nation and boost financial inclusion, some banks who are not ready to grow investments in digital services may be the first to be crowded out of banking space.
Details from the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) terms and conditions for qualifying for licensing include that the PSB licensees will not go into core banking services including lending services or participate in the foreign exchange market. In the report, the tier one lender said the capacity of financial technology (FinTech) companies to gain a significant market share would be limited in the absence of collaborations even though the Nigerian market is so large to make them breakeven in no time.
Business Hilights recalls that towards the end of last year when the CBN announced the new policy and cost of the license, MTN Nigeria and Airtel were quick to express their readiness to play in the PSB space.
Industry experts say the new policy is another of frustrating mobile money service providers who according to statistics had failed to lift the e-payment sector as PSB licensees can now move deeper into the delivery of mobile money services which both the CBN and telecoms regulator had made impossible for them in the beginning.
Whereas MTN is working on acquiring the license as soon as possible, Airtel on its own has
