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.
Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC), acting as liquidator of the defunct Gulf Bank Plc., has instituted two separate actions at the Federal High Court in Lagos against Wema Bank Plc.
The combined claims amount to approximately N125,384,535,500, arising from two distinct sets of disputed high-value properties in Banana Island, Lagos, alongside an alleged improper cash transaction of N401 million.
Both suits were filed under the Failed Banks (Recovery of Debts and Financial Malpractices in Banks) Act and form part of NDIC’s long-running efforts to recover and liquidate outstanding assets of the defunct Gulf Bank nearly two decades after its collapse.
The two actions, though related, concern distinct sets of six properties each, acquired through different shell companies allegedly used by the defunct bank.
The first suit concerns six properties in Banana Island purchased in the name of Euston Wenberg Engineering Company Limited, described in the pleadings as a shell company used by Gulf Bank.
These plots situate in Zones J, K, L and P, have a combined area of approximately 13,794.145 square metres.
At the prevailing market rate of N4,500,000 per square metre, NDIC values these properties at N62,073,652,500.
The second suit concerns a separate set of six properties in Banana Island acquired through Bacad Finance and Investment Limited (later renamed Supra Commercials Limited), another entity in which the defunct bank held over 80 per cent shareholding.
These plots have a combined area of approximately 13,979.974 square metres, valued at N62,909,883,000 at the same per-square-metre rate.
In addition, the second suit claims recovery of N401,000,000 allegedly collected by Wema Bank from the NDIC’s agent bank, United Bank for Africa (UBA), in September 2009.
The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria revoked Gulf Bank Plc’s banking licence by notice published in the Official Gazette of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (Volume 93, Number 3, Government Notice No. 7) dated January 16, 2006, and the Federal High Court, Lagos Division, subsequently made a winding-up order on November 27, 2006, appointing NDIC as liquidator.
On the basis of those instruments, the Corporation maintains it is legally mandated to trace, recover, and liquidate all outstanding assets of the defunct bank for the benefit of depositors and creditors.
In the first suit, NDIC alleged that Gulf Bank acquired six Banana Island plots between 1998 and 2003 using Euston Wenberg Engineering Company Limited as a vehicle.
The internal records of the defunct bank reportedly treated the acquisition as a loan account, an arrangement NDIC contended shows the assets remain beneficially owned by Gulf Bank.
NDIC further alleged that Wema Bank took custody of these properties purportedly to secure an interbank deposit of N771.79 million, but that a joint CBN/NDIC special examination conducted in September 2005 found no record in Gulf Bank’s books confirming that any such deposit existed.
The examination report, dated September 30, 2005, found the defunct bank’s explanations unsatisfactory and no supporting documentation was subsequently produced.
According to NDIC, Wema Bank later presented two managers’ cheques from Access Bank and Intercontinental Bank, both dated September 2005 totaling N250 million in favour of Euston Wenberg Engineering Limited, which NDIC framed as instruments for a purchase rather than a recovery of a deposit.
NDIC contended that the purported sale at N250 million was commercially implausible, given that a single property in Banana Island at that time was worth in excess of N500 million.
In the second suit, NDIC also alleged that Gulf Bank injected N20 million into Bacad Finance and Investment Limited in 2001 to increase its share capital, and later invested a further N60 million in the company in 2003.
The defunct bank ultimately held over 80 per cent of Bacad Finance’s shares and used the entity to acquire a second set of six Banana Island plots.
The pleadings record that the defunct bank intended to develop the properties as a luxury residential estate of 72 flats, to be called Bacad Estate, in partnership with Shelter Afrique.
NDIC alleged that Wema Bank, without any valid mortgage, court order, or proprietary interest, took custody of these properties and later claimed to have sold them for N524 million by way of managers’ cheques dated 2006 and 2007.
NDIC described this claimed sale price as grossly implausible given that each property was worth over N4 billion by that period.
Separately, NDIC stated that in June 2009 it wrote to Wema Bank approving payment of N1,635,616.44 as the full outstanding deposit due to the bank as at January 16, 2006, the date Gulf Bank went into liquidation.
Notwithstanding that communication, NDIC alleged that in September 2009 Wema Bank collected N401 million from UBA, NDIC’s agent bank, without lawful justification, and that the Corporation has no record showing Wema Bank was owed any sum beyond the approved N1.635 million.
Wema Bank, through its counsel, Dr Oladapo Olanipekun (SAN), Mr Kehinde Ogunwunmiju (SAN) and Mr Tunde Afe-Babalola (SAN) have filed a preliminary objection challenging the court’s jurisdiction.
The bank relies on the Failed Banks Act, the Companies and Allied Matters Act (CAMA) 2020, the Limitation Law of Lagos State, and Sections 6(6) and 251(1) of the 1999 Constitution.
Wema Bank argued that NDIC’s claims do not arise from any loan, credit facility, guarantee or banking transaction between the parties, as required under the Failed Banks Act, and that the bank was never a customer of Gulf Bank in respect of any credit facility.
The bank further contended that the suits disclose no debtor-creditor relationship and that NDIC lacks locus standi because the disputed properties were allegedly owned by Bacad Finance and Investment Limited (now Supra Commercials Limited), a separate legal entity.
According to Wema Bank, the matter is fundamentally one of property ownership rather than banking debt recovery, placing it outside the Federal High Court’s jurisdiction under Section 251(1) of the Constitution.
The bank also argued that any cause of action, if it existed at all, arose between 2006 and 2007 and is now statute-barred under the Limitation Law of Lagos State, and accuses NDIC of abusing court process by attempting to circumvent limitation laws with a stale claim.
Wema Bank is asking the court to strike out or dismiss both suits.
The matters have been adjourned to June 25, 2026 for further proceedings.
OneWallet microfinance Bank is partnering Zenith bank and MTN to build a platform that will provide digital financial services to support the growth of Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs) businesses in Abia State.
Dr. C Darl Uzu, Chairman of OneWallet, who disclosed this while launching the platform for traders at the Ariaria International Market, Aba, Abia State said it was meant majorly for traders and the SMEs because they are the bedrock of the Nigerian economy.
According to Dr. Uzu, “We want to expand the inclusion of small businesses in digital financial services by making it easy for them to make and receive payments on affordable digital devices, hence the UnionBell Smart phones and POS.
“We want to help SMEs to access financial support and loan easily to grow their business, and also help businesses to build the history and credibility they require for future growth and expansion.”
He said OneWallet was not created just as a payment application, but as a business support platform designed around the real needs of SMEs.
Dr. Uzu said the choice of Ariaria International Market as the pilot for the platform was intentional since the market is one of the strongest symbol of enterprise in Nigeria.
“We are not here however to teach Ariaria people how to trade because Ariaria already understands business, but we are hear to support Ariaria business energy with tools that can help businesses do more, reach more customers, organize better and prepare for bigger opportunities; we are here to help Ariaria innovate and grow.”
He thanked MTN, Zenith bank and the leadership of the traders for partnering OneWallet to provide the platform that help businesses to expand.
A representative of MTN at the launch, Dr. Ernest Chieke described OneWallet as a platform for individuals and SMEs which intend to move their businesses forward.
He expressed joy that his firm was partnering OneWallet to bring solution to SMEs’ financial problems.
Carl Akwarandu who represented Zenith bank at the event said the bank decided to partner OneWallet because it has a unique product that will make small businesses grow faster.
He promised that Zenith bank would give OneWallet all the support it needs to make it number one microfinance bank in the country.
The Director of OneWallet, Dr. David Nwosu described the microfinance bank a one stop-touch for SMEs growth.
He said at OneWallet, collateral are not needed to obtain loan, but the individual’s business history.
A member of the board of the microfinance bank, Wiedong Wang, commended Dr. Uzu for establishing OneWallet.
He expressed optimism that with the help of its partners, OneWallet will excel.
Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has warned non-interest financial institutions against governance and compliance risks capable of undermining public confidence and financial stability in the country’s growing Islamic finance sector.
Interest-free banks, often known as non-interest or Islamic banks, operate without charging or paying traditional interest (Riba).
The warning was contained in a press statement issued by the apex bank following the 2nd Annual Interactive Session between the CBN Financial Regulation Advisory Council of Experts and the Advisory Committees of Experts of Non-Interest Financial Institutions held at the CBN Auditorium in Abuja.
Speaking through Dr Rita Sike, director of the Financial Policy and Regulation Department, Philip Ikeazor, deputy governor, Financial System Stability, said the rapid expansion of the industry had increased exposure to operational and regulatory vulnerabilities.
The statement read, “The Deputy Governor, however, observed that as the industry grows in size, sophistication, and interconnectedness, it faces unique risks, particularly non-compliance risk, governance challenges, operational vulnerabilities, and emerging technological risks.
“He warned that such risks, if not properly managed, could undermine public confidence, financial stability, and the overall credibility of the non-interest finance ecosystem.”
According to the CBN, the engagement was part of ongoing efforts to strengthen Shariah governance, improve regulatory clarity, and reinforce risk management standards within the non-interest financial services industry.
The apex bank noted that non-interest financial institutions continued to play an increasingly important role in Nigeria’s financial system by providing ethical and Shariah-compliant alternatives to conventional banking.
It stated that the institutions were also contributing to financial inclusion, real sector financing, micro, small, and medium enterprises development, and shared prosperity.
The CBN further explained that the establishment of FRACE and the mandatory constitution of ACEs across all non-interest financial institutions were designed to institutionalise a harmonised governance framework for the sector.
According to the statement, sustained interaction between FRACE and ACEs remained critical to ensuring that regulatory expectations were properly understood and consistently implemented across the industry.
“The objectives of today’s session include fostering the institutionalisation and effective operation of a robust Shariah governance system within Non-Interest Financial Institutions, and providing a structured platform for dialogue, knowledge-sharing, and collaboration,” Ikeazor was quoted in the statement.
In his remarks, Prof Bashir Umar, deputy chairman of FRACE, said the interactive session was aimed at strengthening governance within the non-interest finance sub-sector and promoting constructive engagement between regulators and industry advisory committees.
He also commended the management of the CBN for reviving the session, which was first introduced in 2014.
Earlier in her welcome remarks, Sike reaffirmed the apex bank’s commitment to building a strong and well-governed non-interest financial services industry.
She noted that the growing diversity of products and delivery channels, particularly the emergence of Islamic fintech, had increased the need for stronger regulatory oversight and continuous engagement among industry stakeholders.
“The growing diversity of products, institutions, and delivery channels, particularly with the emergence of Islamic fintech, underscores the need for continuous dialogue, sound regulatory oversight, and robust advisory input from scholars and practitioners,” she said.
The session featured technical presentations on Shariah non-compliance risks in non-interest banks and the role of Islamic fintech in driving financial inclusion.
Participants at the event included members of FRACE, chairmen and members of various ACEs, managing directors of non-interest banks, senior CBN officials, and representatives of the Bank of Industry and the Securities and Exchange Commission.
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