Airtel Mobile Commerce Nigeria Ltd, has been granted approval in principle by the Central Bank of Nigeria to operate as a super-agent in the country, its parent company, Airtel Africa, announced Monday.
On November 4, 2021, Airtel announced it had received approval in principle for a Payment Service Bank (‘PSB’) licence, but it explained that the super agent licence is different from that.
“The PSB licence is required for Airtel to be able to provide financial services in Nigeria such as accepting cash deposits and carrying out payments and remittances, issuing debit and prepaid cards, operating electronic wallet and rendering other financial services,” Airtel said.
“Under the super-agent licence we would be able to create an agent network that can service the customers of licensed Nigerian banks, Payment service banks and licenced mobile money operators in Nigeria,” it added.
Airtel Africa is a leading provider of telecommunications and mobile money services, with a presence in 14 countries across Africa.
Its Nigerian subsidiary accounts for close to 30 percent of the market share.
The CBN hopes to raise the level of financial inclusion in Africa’s most populous country through the operation of the Payment Service Banks and the Super Agent operators.
