culled from:bikyamasr/independent news for the world
LAGOS: Nigeria's central bank on Monday announced it would be opening up more licenses for mobile money with the hope of increasing the ability for more options to be available for Nigerians.
The move was met with both optimism and worry by analysts, who feel that the already 11 licensed mobile operators in the country are going to be inundated with more frustration and concern for profit margins.
"This is a good thing on one level because it will likely reduce the price for the customer," said Ismail Saliha, a banking expert and former Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) consultant. He told Bikyamasr.com that there was a caveat, however, "because companies are unlikely to put forth a lot of capital on a project where they could see the market too whitewashed with competition. Right now, it is a concern and it will be interesting to see if all operators continue."
CBN's Deputy Director of Domestic Payment Emmanual Obaigbona said in a statement that the effort is aimed at assisting banks "in their ability to move the program forward."
Mobile banking officially began on January 1.
He added that the bank believes that broadening the overall participation in the scheme is a positive step for Nigeria.
He added that "the apex bank has already licensed 11 mobile operators who successfully passed the pilot studies conducted for them last year.
"The 11 licensed operators are not the end of the list. The CBN intends to license more operators to meet the set standards for operating mobile money services in the country," Obaigbona said.
He continued to say that the apex bank's decision to issue the mobile money license "was to reduce the unbanked population to the barest minimum and subsequently develop the economy."
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