By PETER EGWUATU

Extending agency banking to rural areas of the country has been identified as a critical condition for attracting the informal sector into the banking system.

Vice President and Business Head, West Africa, MasterCard, Omokehinde Ojomuyide, made this observation in an interview with Vanguard, adding that MasterCard is committed to   a cashless Nigeria. She said that majority of Nigerians in the informal sector are not captured in the banking system, even though the country is regarded as one the highest card issuance in the world.

She further revealed that MasterCard is partnering with the government to develop a robust national identity card that will serve multiple purposes to boost the cashless initiative.

She said, “There is need for the agency banking to spread to rural areas of the country in order to attract majority of the people in the informal sector to the banking system.

“MasterCard is committed to the cashless Nigeria initiative and supporting financial inclusion by optimising payment systems in Africa, and we strongly believe that it is the best way to go if  the country wants to play big in whatever businesses  in the global space.

“According to the Central Bank of Nigeria, trillions of naira currently exchange hands daily in banking halls across Nigeria, at MasterCard; our vision is to drive that number down significantly by encouraging and enabling the migration to electronic forms of payments. There is need to create awareness for the cashless policy of the Central Bank of Nigeria , especially as it relates to the creation of a central switch for mobile money and agent banking in Nigeria.”

The importance of this, she said is the fact that cards and e-payment systems have now taken centre stage in the economies of most African countries, with banks and other financial institutions consistently looking for solutions and value added services for the benefits of the market.

According to her “ The Sub Saharan African market, being a late entrant into the e-payment world, is seeking to leverage this opportunity to leapfrog technology, thereby ensuring it enjoys the benefits of security, speed and convenience of e-payment transactions.