E-Financial
Sustaining Financial Inclusion Through Viable Agent Network
By Fasasi Sarafadeen Atanda
As it is today, financial inclusion is stakeholders’ slogan; the awareness has been created Agents are everywhere, but there is a threat and that threat is agent viability. There is no doubt about it all the stakeholders, such the banks, the MNO, MMO have realized that agents play very key role in delivering digital financial services.
If you look at all the strategies of the mobile network operators, mobile money operators and the banks you will find aggregators that show that agents are key in delivering strategy.
If agents are key how then do we make agents viable? My experience has shown that we have high rate of agents’ turnover as a major challenge at the same time provider performance instability as also a major issue. So, we have two major issues that will help to sustain financial inclusion.
Agents’ turnover rate is too high and also the providers or principal, their performance is also not stable. What I mean by that is, on the agents part of turnover, my visit to the field confirmed that the agents that the providers have invested in training, marketing, on boarding in the last three years, greater percentage of them are no longer in business.
That is a waste of resources. They now have new agents that they need to also train and brand again.
I am sure in the next one year if you visit those locations you will find a new sets of agents. In this situation, we are turning over experiences which are not going to lead into sustainability.
What are those things that are responsible for this? First is general skill-set or capacity. What we have is individual provider training agents which is good, if you are agents of Paga, Paga will train you; if you are agents of Opay, Opay will train you.
If you look at the content of the training it is specific to their platform, it is about how to transact on their platform, dispute resolution on their platform, and it is really not about profitability and knowledge of the business.
Actually, viability of agents is determined by making agency banking or agent network a business and not as a service. They don’t train agents on how they will be productive or cost analysis structure.
Training of agents should be handled by a neutral body or training consultants, to be able to deliver cost benefit training on the agents. Even if you are agents of operator A or agents of operator B you will be trained on how to cover your cost as well as how to remain in business.
As at today, SANEF has been playing that role; we want them to do more, they are in the best position to provider general knowledge in training of agents.
Secondly, is what I called platform quality; here we have mobile App platform, and POS Channel platform. This is a major factor responsible for agents’ turnover, by the time you rout transaction through a platform that has not been tested and certified good, you run into trouble and lose your money, this makes agents to be discouraged in the business and before you know it they will close shop.
For instance, if you are transacting with N100,000 capital and you find yourself transacting on a particular provider’s platform of inferior quality because of lack of security. We need to find out if such platforms are secured and feasible. Can you see the money you put in and the money going out? That is transaction history.
Again, what is the time of resolution of dispute and the channel of dispute resolution? Who is supervising this? We need to start certifying any transaction platform that will be used by agents. This has to do with involving stakeholders that have been able to work with all the platforms.
Thirdly is the support system, we have seen a situation where the principal for example, a bank with an agent network. The agent will come to a bank and won’t have a fair treatment in terms of say I want to quickly get cash and go back to location, No. Banks don’t see their agents as agents they want them to go and queue up in line like other customers. This discourages agents as they will spend the whole day in the bank.
This is contrary to what obtains in some Asian and South American countries where financial inclusion is flying, in those environments, the principals are supporting the agents. In Brazil, a bank opens a ‘Till account’ for the agents with a limit, as agents are transacting they don’t need to be looking for money up and down, they are transacting from the ‘Till account’ a sort of an advance. But, here there is no support from the principals.
Multiple taxes: Local government and state government are coming to agent location for one levy or the other. You can’t imagine State government revenue agents are coming, LCDA and LGA agents are coming to a single kiosk. It is worst these days as local government are looking for revenue everywhere, they have now printed a special receipt they called permit for POS.
It is important we borrow a leaf from countries like Uganda and Tanzania where there is a direct statement from central bank of those countries that certain categories of financial inclusion at the level of agents are excluded from these obnoxious taxes. I have closed about three locations in Niger State, five in Kaduna because every day local government harass us for one levy or the other.
On provider performance instability: If you check the statistics, the top five providers MMO, MNO in the past five years, they are not among the top ten today. Why?
A provider that can boast of 70,000 to 100,000 agents today they have crashed to 5,000 some are struggling for 2,000 agents. We need to find out why agents are closing shops.
Among the reasons are: 1. Most of them roll out without pilot even when they are doing pilot it is done within their office and they won’t get agents in the field involved for a proper product design feedback in order to know what the market requires.
I have witnessed a provider that rolled out agency platform believing that they are everywhere, unfortunately when they rolled out we discovered that their platform lack feasibility no agent history. You can’t view your transaction history. You don’t have feasibility into your transaction and they have spent so much money and can’t recall it again, imagine investment that has gone the drained. Today, they are not among the first ten providers because they have lost so much money.
Also in the strategy, I have checked through a lot of providers’ strategy across the channels; the MMO, MNO and the Banks led, I discovered that they don’t engage the practitioners before they design their strategy and their strategies have always be the same.
If you look at commission structure and on boarding processes, they are all the same, so the mistake of one is been repeated in the other. Strategy of agency banking is not cast in stone you have to look at what is obtainable in the market. These are some of the causes of the downfall of most of the providers.
Also the feedback channel, most of them don’t want to listen to feedback. I have seen providers’ WhatApp group platform where they are the only one authorised to give out information, agents cannot comment. This is funny. On their platform, they will add you as their agent but you cannot write anything there. It is only for passing of information to agents. How would they know what is happening in the market, how would they listen to complains? How would they get feedback to improve on their system?
More so, their objective is more of ‘Profit-centric’, in one year you want to recoup your investment, because of this that they give unrealistic targets to their staff, “On board” “On board” before you know it, they on board nonsense for them and as they are on boarding, people are disembodying.
The most successful financial inclusion organisation in Africa is Mpesa in Kenya. In their first year they did not sell any product, they only registered 400 agents compared to providers in Nigeria where in their first year they want to hit 100,000 agents. Providers in Nigeria should be Customer-centric and not Profit-centric.
They should try as much as possible to make sure that people accept their product and sale value to them if you want to retain them. Agents’ retention is nearly zero in Nigeria that is why you see agents on board today and tomorrow dis-on board.
On dispute resolution channels, today most of the MNO if they want to deploy terminals or retrieve PoS from agents, there are no define guard lines, some of them will lock some of their agents wallet so that they don’t have access to the funds again so that he can come to them and they will collect their terminal.
There should be human face to everything, today there are some MNO that throw in debit to agents account without notification, when you inquire they say it is charges of non-performance. Because you are not using their PoS very well they will debit you for the cost of the PoS. MNOs are behaving as if there are no regulation in the system.
Fasasi Sarafadeen Atanda is chief executive officer of partner de Ecosystem, an agent network management company.
Federal Ministry of Finance has halted enforcement of about N680 million in disputed fees imposed by the National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) on NICON Insurance Limited and Nigeria Reinsurance Corporation (Nig Re) as part of the ongoing insurance industry recapitalisation exercise.
The Ministry also directed NAICOM to suspend its demand that the two companies transfer their entire recapitalisation funds into an escrow account with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), pending determination of a petition challenging the legality of the charges and the directive.
The intervention followed a July 27, 2026 petition by NICON and Nig Re over what they described as unlawful fees and regulatory demands arising from the implementation of the Nigerian Insurance Industry Reform Act (NIIRA) 2025.
In a letter to the Commissioner for Insurance, Raymond Omachi, permanent secretary, Federal Ministry of Finance, on behalf of Taiwo Oyedele, minister of Finance and coordinating minister of the Economy, requested that NAICOM provide a detailed response and legal justification for the disputed requirements.
The Ministry specifically directed the Commission to suspend enforcement of the contested processing and verification fees, the one per cent Capital Injection Fee, and the directive requiring the companies to transfer their full recapitalisation funds to a CBN escrow account.
The dispute centres on NAICOM’s assessment of a one per cent fee on capital injected by operators, alongside additional processing and verification charges prescribed under Appendix 2 of the Commission’s Minimum Capital Requirement Guidelines.
According to the petition, the combined assessments amounted to N305 million for NICON and N375 million for Nig Re, bringing the disputed charges to N680 million.
The companies are also challenging what they described as an unconstitutional requirement to transfer more than the statutory proportion of their recapitalisation funds to the CBN.
They contend that Section 16(3) of NIIRA 2025 provides for a 10 per cent statutory deposit, and not the transfer of the entire capital injection into an escrow account.
The companies told the Ministry that they had already met the July 31, 2026 recapitalisation deadline.
NICON said it injected N420 billion, while Nig Re injected N30 billion into Mudaraba Term Deposit accounts with Lotus Bank Limited. The companies maintained that the amounts exceeded their adjusted recapitalisation requirements of N16 billion and N28 billion, respectively.
They further stated that they had deposited N42.5 billion and N43.5 billion respectively with the CBN, in compliance with the statutory deposit requirement under Section 16(3) of the new law.
The companies also disclosed that they had made initial payments of N480 million and N75 million, respectively, in fees.
The Finance Ministry’s directive effectively places the disputed charges and escrow requirement on hold while NAICOM is expected to justify the legal and regulatory basis for its actions.
The intervention could have wider implications for the insurance industry’s recapitalisation programme, particularly as operators face regulatory deadlines to strengthen their capital base under the new insurance law.
The controversy also raises questions about the extent to which regulatory guidelines can impose additional financial obligations on operators beyond those expressly provided for under the enabling legislation.
NAICOM is now expected to respond to the Ministry’s request and explain the statutory basis for the one per cent capital injection fee, the additional processing and verification charges, and the requirement for the full capital injection to be transferred into a CBN escrow account.
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has launched a nationwide awareness campaign aimed at helping investors and beneficiaries recover unclaimed dividends and inherited investments, as part of efforts to strengthen investor protection and reduce the volume of dormant assets in Nigeria’s capital market.
The initiative, unveiled in Abuja through the Probate/Unclaimed Monies Awareness and Investor Clinic, seeks to educate investors, beneficiaries and estate executors on probate procedures, estate administration and the processes involved in accessing financial assets left behind by deceased relatives.
Speaking at the event, Dr Emomotimi Agama, the Director-General of the SEC, said the Commission was addressing a long-standing challenge that had prevented many families from accessing investments belonging to deceased relatives.
Agama said many beneficiaries face difficulties obtaining probate, letters of administration, death certificates and other documents required to claim shares, dividends and other financial assets.
“For many Nigerian families, the death of a loved one who held shares, dividends or other investments marks the beginning of a long and often confusing journey,” he said.
According to him, the complexity surrounding estate administration often leaves beneficiaries unable to access legitimate investments and other financial assets inherited from deceased relatives.
He described unclaimed dividends and dormant assets as a major concern for the Nigerian capital market, noting that the funds represent money that should be benefiting families but remains idle because beneficiaries are unable to access them.
“Across our market, unclaimed dividends and dormant assets represent real money—money that belongs to real families, sitting idle, disconnected from the people it was meant to serve,” Agama said.
The SEC DG said the Commission was committed to bridging the gap through policy reforms, investor education and sustained engagement with investors, beneficiaries and other stakeholders in the capital market.
He stressed the importance of ensuring that investors and their families were adequately informed about the procedures for documenting, preserving and transferring financial assets to beneficiaries.
Agama said the awareness campaign would also provide an avenue for members of the public to better understand probate processes and the requirements for recovering unclaimed monies and inherited investments.
Also speaking, the Acting Chief Executive Officer of Meristem Registrars and Probate Services Limited, Ms Nkechinyelu Okoye, identified poor awareness and inadequate estate planning as major factors contributing to the accumulation of unclaimed financial assets.
Okoye said some beneficiaries were unaware that financial assets such as shares and dividends formed part of a deceased person’s estate, while others did not know that their deceased relatives had investments in the capital market.
She added that some beneficiaries were also unfamiliar with the documentation and legal procedures required to establish their entitlement and successfully claim the assets.
According to her, these challenges often result in financial assets remaining unclaimed for extended periods, even when legitimate beneficiaries are available.
The initiative is expected to improve public awareness of probate and estate administration procedures while helping more families identify and recover investments and other financial assets belonging to them.
It is also part of broader efforts to reduce the volume of unclaimed dividends and dormant assets in the capital market and ensure that funds belonging to investors and their beneficiaries are returned to their rightful owners.
Debt Management Office (DMO) said the federal government spent N3.14 trillion on servicing its domestic debt in the first quarter of 2026.
The office disclosed the data in its latest domestic debt service report for Q1 2026.
The figure comprises N2.97 trillion in interest payments and N169.68 billion in principal repayments.
The agency said in January, the government spent N741.82 billion on domestic debt service, while the figure rose to N967.67 billion in February.
Debt service increased further to N1.43 trillion in March, bringing the total for the quarter to N3.14 trillion.
The March figure was 47.7 percent higher than the N967.67 billion recorded in February and 92.7 percent above the N741.82 billion spent in January.
Also, the debt office said interest payments accounted for about 94.6 percent of total domestic debt service during the quarter.
The DMO said treasury bills accounted for the largest share of interest payments at N1 trillion, while interest on federal government bonds stood at N1.96 trillion.
The agency said the government also paid N4.24 billion in interest on FGN savings bonds during the period.
The DMO said the principal component of the debt service comprised N169.68 billion in repayments on local-denominated promissory notes.
Overall, the government’s domestic debt service rose sharply through the quarter, with March accounting for almost half of the N3.14 trillion spent between January and March.
Nigeria’s public debt increased by 0.01 percent to N159.35 trillion in the Q1 of 2026.
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