All major mobile telcos, along with 16 banks on Tuesday, came together for the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement Systems (NIBSS’) re-launch of mCASH this week.
MCASH is a mobile payment system for making low-value retail payments designed to extend e-payment options to low-income buyers and sellers who deal in cash.The cashless initiative was first launched in 2016.
Speaking at the re-launch of the platform in Lagos, MTN Nigeria Chief Executive Officer, CEO, Ferdi Moolman, represented by the General Manager, Mobile Financial Services, MTN, Usoro Usoro, described the initiative as the outcome of what can be achieved when organisations work together for a common goal, to serve.
“It’s incredible how much the world has changed and continues to evolve with new ideas and technologies. Today, Africa is increasingly embracing new ways of payment for retail consumption and transactions.
“For those of us in the telecoms industry, this presented us with the question; how do we fully utilise all available options to provide standardised and efficient mobile cashless services for micro-payment and collections? The answer? Ladies and gentlemen is MCASH,” he said.
The Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, NIBSS, Adebisi Shonubi, said the MCASH initiative was borne out of the need to enhance financial inclusion in Nigeria, by extending e-payment benefits to payers and merchants who operate at the local levels especially the small and medium scale business owners.
“The intention is to expand the payment opportunity for people who still use cash today to find a more convenient means of making payments. To ensure the paradigm shift, we had to promote an ecosystem partnership consisting of banks and telecommunication companies thereby birthing what has become a novel collaboration anywhere in the world – a service that is not one bank or one telco driven but which is ecosystem driven,” Shonubi said.This USSD-based service delivers funds to merchants’ accounts based on USSD technology. You can use mCASH by simply dialling *402*Seller’s code*Amount# to pay accepting merchants.
