The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has granted Airtel Mobile Commerce Nigeria Ltd, a subsidiary of Airtel Africa Plc, full super agent license to operate as an agency network.
Super agents are businesses licensed to recruit agents for agency banking, which involves providing financial services to communities on behalf of banks in order to deepen the nation’s financial inclusion.
The Company Secretary, Simon O’Hara, confirmed the granting of the licence to her companys in a statement titled ‘Nigeria Super Agent Full License Approval’.
The statement, which had been filed with the NGX reads: “Further to our announcement of 15 November 2021, Airtel Africa, a leading provider of telecommunications and mobile money services, with a presence in 14 countries across Africa, today confirms that the Central Bank of Nigeria (‘CBN’) has awarded its subsidiary, Airtel Mobile Commerce Nigeria Ltd, with a full super agent licence.
“The licence allows us to create an agency network that can service the customers of licensed Nigerian banks, payment service banks and licensed mobile money operators in Nigeria”, 0’Hara added.
Under the super-agent licence, Airtel will be able to create agency network that can service the customers of licensed banks, payment service banks and licensed mobile money operators in the country.
The latest approval granted Airtel Mobile came barely a month after its competitor, after MTN Nigeria, obtained final approval from the apex bank to operate as Payment Service Bank (Momo PSB). Before then, the telecom operator had received approval in principle for the service on November 4, 2021.
According to the guidelines, the primary objective of granting PSB licences is to increase financial inclusion at the grassroots, particularly in rural regions where banks are not physically operating to provide services.
