Fortis to Deploy Over 50,000 Mobile Money Agents in 12 Months

How sure are we that FORTIS can really meet up with this challenge of mobilizing 50,000 agents, is it for the fact that they have an agreement with all the micro finance banks in Lagos? well maybe yes because that would mean they're closer to the grass root.

"Fortis, one of the 11 mobile money operators licensed by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) is currently deploying over 50,000 mobile money agents across Nigeria in one year to build a robust business network as Fortis Mobile Money roll out its service. 

Last week, MTN, a leading mobile network operator established a connection with Fortis Mobile Money to connect Fortis to its over 40 million mobile telephone subscribers on its platform. 

Henry Nwawuba, managing director and chief executive officer of Fortis described the partnership with MTN as a very significant achievement, saying that every mobile money company in Nigeria looks ahead to the kind of access MTN provides.

Having launched the service in Lagos, he said the company's mobile money service would rapidly take off in other cities and states in Nigeria. "That is because without the agent network, mobile money will not work. In Lagos, we have about 420 agents. In Abuja, we have about 1000 while in Port Harcourt we have activated 200 agents," he said.

He explained that MTN has provided Fortis Mobile Money an unrestricted access (on its network) to unstructured supplementary service data (USSD), which is a messaging function in GSM cell phones. Unlike regular text messages, USSD messages travel over GSM signaling channels and are used to query information and trigger services.

"We are asking the company to open up their distribution channels so that their airtime distribution partners can also become agent for mobile money."

Explaining the services that are available to Nigerians on the network, the managing director of Fortis said the company would provide basic mobile financial services such as fund transfer, deposit and withdrawal from the bank account, which can be done at an agent location in the community. Before a customer can access to these services, such a customer must have opened a mobile account.

 "Once that account is opened, it becomes your wallet. Do not leave home without your mobile phone. There is cash on it. The account is not physically sitting in your phone. Your phone is just an access device just like your ATM card.  When you take your ATM card to the ATM the money is not in your ATM card. Over 40 million MTN subscribers can open cash-lite account on Fortis Mobile Money by dialing *555*."

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