Stanbic IBTC Bank renews commitment to cashless economy

Stanbic IBTC Bank renews commitment to cashless economy
… *909# marks one year of operation

Chuks Udo Okonta

Stanbic IBTC Bank, a subsidiary of Stanbic IBTC Holdings Plc, on
Tuesday December 11, commemorated the first anniversary of its *909#
mobile money service, reiterating its commitment to continuously
deliver innovative products and solutions, part of which includes
enhancing the robustness of its mobile banking and mobile payments
systems.

The bank was one of the first organizations licensed by the Central
Bank of Nigeria in October last year to operate mobile money services
in Nigeria in accordance with the Mobile Payments Regulatory
Framework.

At the event in Lagos, which was attended by stakeholders from the
banking, retail and telecoms sectors, the Chief Executive Officer of
Stanbic IBTC Holdings Plc, Mrs. Sola David-Borha, recalled that
Stanbic IBTC Bank had since 2009 shown commitment to technology-driven
branchless banking and enthusiastically embraced the Central Bank of
Nigeria’s drive towards an increasingly cashless economy.

David-Borha said the organization’s decision to launch the *909#
Stanbic IBTC MobileMoney solution last year was underscored by the
bank’s strategic focus of strengthening its universal banking
franchise by integrating Nigeria’s huge informal economy, which is
characterized by unbanked small scale farmers, traders, craftsmen and
other types of small and medium sized businesses, into the formal
economy, and in the process enhance financial inclusion in Nigeria.

She described mobile money as a game changer which apart from enabling
customers to conduct basic financial transactions such as mobile money
account opening, buying airtime, deposit and receipt of cash, as well
as payment of utility bills through their mobile phones, also offers
enormous benefits to the Nigerian economy by channeling the huge funds
in the informal sector through the banking system to engender economic
development.

Obinnia Abajue, Executive Director of Personal and Business Banking,
Stanbic IBTC Bank, said it was in recognition of the need for
market-driven partnerships and alliances with the different
stakeholders in the mobile money value chain, that the bank went into
partnerships with all the four major telecom operators in Nigeria,
enabling mobile payment services to take root, proliferate, and scale
up across the country.

According to Abajue, Stanbic IBTC has recorded significant milestones
with mobile money. To date, *909# Stanbic IBTC mobile money has over
600,000 registered customers, over 790 agents nationwide and there
have been over 7.7million agent airtime transactions and a total
monthly transaction value of N1.3 billion. A mobile wallet can be
funded through; a mobile money agent, at any Stanbic IBTC Bank branch,
any ATM, person to person transfer, and online through the web,
internet banking and through Quickteller, Abajue said. Stanbic IBTC
recently won the Nigerian Financial Technology Award for the best use
of IT in mobile money services.

Stanbic IBTC Bank, a subsidiary of Stanbic IBTC Holdings Plc, is a
full service end to end financial services organization with a clear
focus on three main business pillars - Corporate and Investment
Banking, Personal and Business Banking and Wealth Management. The
Standard Bank Group, to which Stanbic IBTC Holdings Plc belongs, is
rooted in Africa with strategic representation in 18 key sub-Saharan
countries and other emerging markets. Standard Bank has been in
operation for 150 years and is focused on building first-class
on-the-ground banks in chosen countries in Africa and connecting other
selected emerging markets to Africa and to each other.