Mobile Money Launched in Nigeria
FOLLOWING the recent grant of licenses to mobile money service providers by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), United Bank for Africa (UBA) in conjunction with its associate company; Afripay Limited, has blazed the trail by being the first of the 11 licensees, to roll out commercially, following the launch of Nigeria’s first mobile money service; U-Mo in Lagos on November 24, 2011.
U-Mo which is available to over 90 million mobile phone subscribers irrespective of which network that they are in, is designed to promote savings as well as enable people to carry out financial transactions, including sending and receiving monies from their phones.
It enables phone users to buying airtime for self and for others, pay bills, pay for goods and services in shops and on the internet as well.
Speaking at the launch Group Managing Director/CEO, UBA Plc, Mr. Phillips Oduoza, said the launch of U-Mo is a major step towards realizing the objectives of the ‘Cash lite’ policy of the CBN.
According to him, “this product is the first in the banking industry in line with the CBN policy and it is going to be a revolution.
“This product is unique as almost any form of transaction can be done through U-Mo” he added.
He commended the CBN for providing the environ-ment for this to happen as it will in no small measure lead to a significant higher levels of financial inclusion given that there are more phones subscribers than account holders.
Also speaking at the event, the MD of Afri-Pay Mr. Yinka Adedeji, disclosed that Afri-Pay will offer three categories of U-Mo Accounts namely; Silver, Gold and Platinum, differentiated by degree of personal information provided by the subscribers.
Specifically, U-Mo Silver is offered for customers with very minimal information (names and mobile number) and it allows them to spend or pay up to N3,000 per transaction and up to N30,000 per day.
Essentially U-Mo Silver enables payment for food, transportation and basic goods, buy airtime for self and family, send and receive money from mobile phones.
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