Financial inclusion: CBN approves Innovectives as super-agent

The Central Bank of Nigeria on Wednesday granted an approval-in-principle to Innovectives to operate as a super-agent in the country’s financial services system.
Innovectives is a provider of secure and affordable transaction channels for the unbanked and under-banked members of the public.
With the approval, the company says it will leverage on the Nigerian Inter-Bank Settlement System switching infrastructure to enable inter-scheme Cash-In-Cash-Out at all its agent locations.

The Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Innovectives, Emmanuel Agha, said the CBN expected the company and its partners to “deploy, operate and manage a robust, efficient and interoperable agency banking and mobile financial payment network with selected retail outlets operating as agents under the framework as approved by the CBN.”

According to the CBN’s Regulatory Framework for licensing Super-Agents in Nigeria, the super-agents shall be responsible for monitoring and supervising the activities of the agents; and have information on the volume and value of transactions carried out for each type of service by each agent.

The central bank stated in the framework that the volume and value of transactions should be made available to the principal; monitor effective compliance with set limits and establish other prudential measures in each case, and take all other measures such as onsite visits and ensure that agents operate strictly within the requirements of the law, guidelines and the contract.
The bank said that the approval was not transferable and was valid for a period of six months, after which a review of performance would be conducted to determine if the super-agent should be awarded a full licence.
Agha said the company’s financial inclusion strategy was to ensure that all categories of informal workers in Nigeria have access to affordable financial services through its agent network.
He said the proposed suite of services would address critical social challenges of informal workers such as savings culture, access to credit, wage payment, health insurance, and informal pension.