E-Financial
Standard Bank Group Selects Flutterwave to Drive Digital Transformation Efforts Across Africa
Standard Bank, Africa’s largest bank by assets, has partnered with Flutterwave, Africa’s leading payments technology company, to enhance digital payments experiences for its customers in Nigeria, Zambia, Tanzania, Uganda, Ghana, Mauritius, Cote D’Ivoire and Malawi.
Flutterwave and Standard Bank are collaborating to build e-commerce, card issuing, payments, collections, USSD, lending, and buy-now-pay-later capabilities for millions of Africans.
The integration will help customers including individuals, SMEs, large companies and institutions to fully leverage the power of digital payments and e-commerce to grow their businesses. The COVID crisis has changed how people buy and sell across Africa—enabling a massive shift to digital payments and e-commerce.
According to Statista, digital responses were key to improving services within several sectors such as business, healthcare and education. A shift to digital payments accounted for 33% of all Covid-19 responses by governments and the private sector of Sub-Saharan African countries in 2020.
Institutions, businesses and individuals continue to think of ways to reach their customers using digital channels. With this partnership, Standard Bank will provide agile tech solutions to its customers to help them grow their businesses online and offline.
This partnership denotes the unique collaborative relationship that exists between banks and fintechs across Africa where the customers’ needs and satisfaction take utmost priority.
Commenting on the news, Olugbenga GB Agboola, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Flutterwave said: “We are proud that Flutterwave’s white label services power digital efforts for top banks in Africa. Our partnership with Standard Bank demonstrates that fintechs and banks are not competitors but trusted partners with the key focus being the customer.
“We plan to grow financial and digital inclusion through this partnership and in the long run, we expect to generate more jobs in the digital economy and enable rapid business growth across the continent”.
Speaking during the announcement, Margaret Nienaber, Chief Executive Officer of Client Solutions at Standard Bank said: “Today’s announcement is an important step in Standard Bank’s platform journey expanding from our leadership position in traditional financial services to meet clients on the digital platforms where they are shopping, socialising and doing business.
“Partnerships with innovative fintechs like Flutterwave underpin our strategy by integrating our scale and expertise across the African continent with the services and offerings of our partners to offer an expanded range of solutions, delivered in a seamless manner to our clients.
Reinforcing the importance of the partnership to clients across the continent, Yinka Sanni, Chief Executive of Africa Regions at Standard Bank said: “Standard Bank has an almost 160-year history of serving clients and supporting economic development in Africa.
“Today, we are the largest financial services group on the continent, with powerful scale advantages and strengths. Coupled with the innovation offered by Flutterwave, we can deliver real impact and growth opportunities to clients across the continent. We believe when our clients grow, Africa grows.”
E-Financial
Lagos State Appoints MoneyMaster as Payment Partner for “Ounje Eko” Programme
“Ounje Eko”, the food price discount initiative of the Lagos State Government, has appointed leading payment service bank, MoneyMaster Payment Service Bank Limited (MMPSB), as its collaborator in the bid to ensure ease of payments at the market.
MoneyMaster is one of the Central Bank of Nigeria-licensed Payment Service Banks (PSBs) to promote financial inclusion across Nigeria.
Under the partnership, MMPSB will apply its cutting-edge payment solution to engender easy payment and reconciliation in order to make the experiences of Lagosians who will be getting their food supplies from the markets pleasurable. Its payment solution is also all-encompassing and ensures real time value to payment destinations.
The mobile bank was appointed as the collection and payment partner for “Ounje Eko” Food Markets programme which is a government initiative serving the five divisions of Lagos State. Consequent on this, MoneyMaster Payment Service Bank will collect payments in 57 LCDAs in the state.
The partnership gives credence to the quality of payment solutions that MoneyMaster is reputed for in its services to its growing business clientele in private and public sectors.
E-Financial
CBN, EFCC Probe Banks, Firms over Alleged Forex Racketeering
Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), is investigating irregular foreign exchange transactions and forward contracts valued at approximately $2.4 billion.
The inquiry follows an extensive audit by Deloitte, which scrutinized $7 billion in dollar debts accumulated under the bank’s previous leadership.
In the aftermath of the 294th Monetary Policy Committee meeting in Abuja, Yemi Cardoso, governor of CBN, disclosed to journalists that the investigation, supported by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, among other security bodies, aims to clarify the legitimacy of these FX allocations identified as problematic by the audit.
“It was determined that a number of these transactions did not qualify…they were outright illegal. The law enforcement agencies are now looking into those transactions that as far as we are concerned, are not valid to be paid,” Cardoso detailed, emphasizing the unlawful nature of these forex deals.
The crux of the investigation lies in the audit findings that a significant portion of the scrutinized transactions lacked proper documentation and, in many instances, were deemed outright illegal.
However, the unfolding investigation has raised concerns within the organized private sector, with some entities contemplating legal action against commercial banks for unresolved forex bids.
Despite these tensions, Governor Cardoso reassures that the foreign exchange market remains open and transparent, inviting stakeholders to address their forex needs through the official channels.
Furthermore, Cardoso clarified the distribution of fertilizers to farmers as a one-off measure and not indicative of a shift back to direct interventions by the CBN, underscoring a commitment to strategic, regulatory governance rather than direct market involvement.
E-Financial
CBN Urges Banks to Expedite Action on Recapitalisation
Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has directed deposit money banks in the country to expedite action to increase their capital base from the current ₦25bn.
Olayemi Cardoso, governor of CBN, stated this during the apex bank’s 294th meeting of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) on Tuesday in Abuja, when the MPC hiked the interest rate by 22.75% to 24.75%.
The apex bank chief said the MPC examined developments in the banking sector and expressed satisfaction that the industry remained stable. The committee, however, said to guard against risk, commercial banks in the country should accelerate their recapitalisation efforts.
Cardoso said, “The MPC also reviewed developments in the banking system and noted that the industry remains safe, sound, and stable. The committee thus called on the bank to sustain its surveillance and ensure compliance of banks with existing regulatory and macro-potential guidelines.
“The MPC also enjoined the banks to expedite actions on the recapitalisation of banks to strengthen the system against potential risks in an increasingly globalised world.”
- News3 days ago
NGX RegCo, FRCN Unveil Roadmap for SFRS Adoption
- News3 days ago
NCC Files Copyright Violation Charges Against MTN, Others
- News2 days ago
FIRS Files Tax Evasion Charges against Binance
- News2 days ago
IFC Invests in New 4DX Ventures Fund to Support Tech Startups in Africa
- E-Financial3 days ago
Access Bank Introduces Innovative Offline Banking Platform
- Telecom2 days ago
NCC Reports Sluggish Growth in 5G Penetration, 3 Years after Adoption
- E-Business3 days ago
BrandXchange Opens Voting Portal for 2024 Consumers Value Awards
- Telecom2 days ago
Cable Cut:–WIOCC Restores 2.5 Terabytes of Capacity, 100 Links