Online payments platform gets CBN nod for agency network, Quickteller Paypoint

According to various media reports, Interswitch has announced that it has been given an approval-in-principle by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to roll out its financial Agency Network which will trade as Quickteller Paypoint.

Interswitch will operate the new platform through its subsidiary, Interswitch Financial Inclusion Services (IFIS).

Innovation Village reports that the company also announced that it aims to grow the agent network to 150,000 by 2020 thereby stepping up the availability of digital financial services in financially-excluded locations in Nigeria from 44% to over 70% in five years.

Confirming the CBN's approval, Divisional CEO, IFIS, Mike Ogbalu said, “We are very happy to confirm that CBN has granted the required authorization for us to operate as a Super Agent. This is an ambitious undertaking and with Quickteller Paypoint, we seek to become the largest and most used agent network in Nigeria by YE 2016. This is the beginning of what promises to be a new chapter in Nigerian financial services and our national development as a whole new frontier of commercial activities will be opened up through Quickteller Paypoint.

"We want to thank our numerous partners and stakeholders and the CBN for trusting our vision enough to give us the opportunity to unlock the value of agency banking and financial inclusion services in Nigeria. Issues around non-robust agent management platform, poor liquidity management, lack of agent interoperability, low agent value proposition, poor investment in agent branding and support have all been duly identified and would be addressed effectively. The hard work starts now but we are going to relish every moment.”

The CBN's approval is expected to aid new levels of collaboration amongst Nigerian Banks, other financial and non-financial institutions to leverage the reach and product innovation offered by the Quickteller Paypoint platform.

In turn, this would enable the extension of their services to previously unreached customers via a shared infrastructure. Interswitch utilized a similar model that aided the successful rollout of ATM technology across Nigeria.