MTN Nigeria ready to boost financial inclusion–CEO

Chief Executive Officer (CEO), MTN Nigeria, Karl Toriola has reiterated the readiness of his company to help in the actualization of federal government’s policy on financial inclusion as dictated by the Central Bank of Nigeria(CBN).

Speaking recently on Arise Tv MTN, CEO, Toriola said the Central Bank has the prerogative to assess how telecom operators, particularly the largest telecoms operator in the country can support the national agenda of financial inclusion.

He said “We feel we have the resources to contribute towards the CBN’s objective and would like to participate through a Payment Service Bank (PSB) among other options, according to the CBN’s directives.

PSB remains front and centre to our strategy, but we have to work according to the policy of the Central Bank of Nigeria”.

Speaking on what the telcos can contribute to the financial inclusion policy; he affirmed that they have a large distribution network and the way we can contribute is by assisting the financial ecosystem to tap into the unbanked.

According to him, “a positive outcome we discovered is that the inclusion of the unbanked into financial services actually accelerates the growth of the deposit money banks and that’s something we’ve seen across all the markets where mobile money has been accelerated.

“Nigeria is making great strides on its financial inclusion drive and we have a role to play in terms off in tech and digitisation of access to banking services. Our country is indicatively on the global forefront for financial inclusion so I believe the federal government’s policies and the deposit money banks have done well in terms of developing channels such as USSD and mobile apps to mention a few.”

On the outlook for MTN Nigeria for the rest of 2021, he stressed that as the country ventures out of the COVID pandemic, we’re happy to support the entire nation’s business, individuals, and families in being able to communicate during periods of restricted movements.

He added that he remains optimistic about the long-term outlook in Nigeria, stressing that MTN is focused on improved customer service as we continue to accelerate our capacity and infrastructure to support that.

“MTN Nigeria remains a critical part of the MTN Group, we are proud to be here and proud to stay in Nigeria.”