The Central Bank of Nigeria has finally granted Airtel Mobile Commerce Nigeria Ltd, a subsidiary of Airtel Africa a full super-agent licence, the telecommunications company announced on Tuesday.
The final approval came a few months after approval-in-principle was granted in November 2021. Approval-in-principle is a temporary approval that is subject to meeting specific requirements over the next six months.
Six months down the line, Airtel Africa has met all the requirements and finally received a full super-agent licence to expand its agency network across Nigeria.
“The licence allows us to create an agency network that can service the customers of licenced Nigerian banks, payment service banks and licenced mobile money operators in Nigeria,” Airtel Africa stated in a statement obtained by Investors King.
The approval is in line with the Central Bank of Nigeria’s strategy at deepening financial inclusion by taking financial services to the unbanked and underbanked across the country.
A recent study has shown that 34.9 million, or 39.7% of the adult population in Africa’s largest economy are excluded from financial services due to inaccessibility and other structural constraints. Only 28.6 million adults were documented in the banking system, representing 32.5% of the adult population.
The huge numbers of the unbanked and underserviced are the reason the CBN launched super agents, payment service providers and other licences to increase the number of people captured in the financial system, and subsequently, the internal revenue generation.
