He explained why the CBN excluded the telcos from driving the mobile money scheme model.
Musa added that one of the reason is that the regulatory oversight issues predicated on the fact that telcos are not regulated by the CBN but the Nigerian Communications Communications (NCC). He said that telcos provide telecommunications and ancillary services to mobile money operators, noting that they could become dominant and prioritise transactions from other networks.
According to him, telcos were excluded because they are not deposit money banks that are licensed to partake in clearing activities, stressing that it was to avoid the duality of control of both the CBN and the telcos.
Meanwhile, NDIC has extended deposit insurance cover to subscribers of mobile money via Pass-Through Insurance (PTI) up to N500,000($2791) cover.
Pass-Through Insurance implies that the mobile money operators pool accounts would not just be regarded as single accounts, but that the benefits of the deposit insurance will be enjoyed by customers of the MMO pool account.
Kingsley Nwaigwe, deputy director, research, policy and international relations department, NDIC, said each customer of the mobile money scheme as a subscriber to the MMO pool account will be covered to the insured maximum amount for deposit money banks.
According to him, PTI will encourage mobile payment system and enhance financial inclusion. It will also engender public confidence in the financial system thereby promote financial stability, he said.
Nwaigwe said that the mobile money scheme customers had transactions limit with any of the appointed agents based on the three tiered Know Your Customers (KYC) categorisation.
He explained that tier 1 allows for N3,000 per transaction per customer and not more than N30,000($167) per day and only subscriber’s name and telephone numbers were needed, tier 2 category allows for N10,000($55) per transaction per customer and not more than N100,000 ($558)per day but required additional information such as identification and address while tier 3 permits N100,000 transaction per customer and not more than one million per day but more stringent KYC details are required.
