By Francis Ogwo
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has called on banks and other financial institutions to cut down on the cost of providing banking services to their customers, especially the underbanked and unbanked within the society.
This was made by CBN Director, Payment System Management Department, Musa Jimoh during the opening of Hope Payment Service Bank in Lagos on Wednesday.
According to him, the cost of providing banking services to customers is ‘too high’stressing that the CBN will be monitoring the new entrants into the banking sector especially the Payment Service Banks towards keeping a tab on their service charges to customers for six months.
Recall that the apex bank recently approved the Payment Services Banks (PSBs) to boost access to financial services for low income earners and unbanked segments of the market at the grassroots through digital services.
The new established outfits include Hope PSB, a subsidiary of Unified Payment, Globacom’s Money Master and 9Mobile’s 9PSB.
Jimoh further added that : “Nigerians should afford banking services. The cost of providing banking services is too high. I would want a situation where the unbanked and underbanked can afford the services that the Payment Service Banks will be providing. In a year or six month time I will come back to see how whether the banks have make their cost to serve affordable to the underbanked and unbanked”.
“While we are congratulating Hope PSBank, on this milestone, there is need to make banking service affordable to the people,” he added.
Prior to the approval of the PSBs,CBN Director, Financial Policy and Regulations Department, Kelvin Amugo, had said that the PSBs were licensed to boost access to finial services for low income earners and use technology to reach Nigerians in remote places where commercial banks find it difficult to operate.
They would also offer smaller-scale banking operations and the absence of credit risk and foreign exchange operations.
Part of their guidelines of operation is that they can also offer payments and remittance services, issue debit and prepaid cards, deploy Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) and other technology-enabled banking services to the people, majority of whom cannot be reached by the conventional banks.
