MTN Nigeria Diversifies into Banking after CBN’s Final Approval for MoMo Bank

MTN Nigeria, has received final approval from Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to run a payment service bank, according to a regulatory filing by the operator on Monday.

The approval gives the firm the leave to operate virtually all the services offered by conventional commercial banks except granting credit and processing foreign exchange transactions.

“The date of commencement will be communicated to the CBN (Central Bank of Nigeria) in accordance with its requirements,” the telco heavyweight said of the bank to be known as MoMo Payment Service Bank Limited in a note to the Nigerian Exchange.

Karl Toriola, CEO MTN Nigeria, said “We want to leverage the financial inclusion drive. We plan to give people who don’t have bank accounts or even ATM cards the opportunity to be able to do banking services,” a senior official of the telco told PREMIUM time on condition that its identity will not be divulged because of the sensitivity of the matter,” Nigeria’s biggest company by revenue said.

“And we are leveraging on our size. When we have subscribers of over 70 million spread across Nigeria with our infrastructural spread, we are well positioned to cover everywhere. That’s exactly what we want to achieve.”

MTN Nigeria and Airtel Africa, which got preliminary approvals last November to operate in the same space, will be looking to tap Nigeria’s unbanked adult population of 38 million people, who according to Abuja-based media research house and data analytics firm, held N26.2 trillion last year alone, a move that will pit both telcos against traditional banks in getting a slice of the market.