Central Bank of Nigeria strengthens commitment to boost digital payments adoption with latest license approval
Committed to boost digital payments adoption and digital financial inclusion in Nigeria, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has granted a Payment Solution Service Provider (PSSP) license to Cellulant Nigeria Limited.
Banks, online merchants, payment processors, retailers, state governments and consumers will now be able to connect to Cellulant’s payment infrastructure to meet their electronic payment needs.
Digitizing payments is at the heart of CBN’s vision 2020 plan that was developed in 2007. Vision 2020 is a commitment to modernizing Nigeria’s payment system by 2020 in order to encourage economic growth by providing safe and efficient infrastructure for making and receiving payments.
Licensing is given to companies that conform to internationally accepted operational, regulatory and technical standards. Such a partnership between CBN and Payment Solution Service Providers ensurer that there are minimum risks to the Central Bank, other payment service providers and end users; while extending usage of digital payments platforms to all banked and unbanked Nigerians as well as all sectors and geographies.
This approval makes Cellulant, already well established across Africa as a digital payments provider, one of the 7 companies that make up the underlying e-Payment infrastructure in Nigeria. These companies are tasked with increasing the uptake of e-Commerce, mobile commerce and digital payments in Nigeria.
“The future of Africa’s payment landscape is digital. Our consumers and businesses alike are steadily moving to use digital payment solutions that are transparent and give them access to their money with ease. Our job is to make sure that we provide payment solutions across all spectrum of Nigeria’s payment ecosystem,” said Mr. Bolaji Akinboro, Cellulant Corporation’s co-founder and the CEO of Cellulant Nigeria.
"We are building a payments network in Nigeria that delivers quality, robust and secure solution. This approval from CBN is a pathway for Cellulant to ensure that Nigerians have a strong payment infrastructure that supports Nigeria’s vision 2020 especially as it pertains to digitizing payments within Agriculture and adjacent payment verticals such as transport & logistics.”
The company has two products that are delivering on this promise already and are backed up on a blockchain ledger which ensures that accounts cannot be hacked, and records cannot be changed:
Tingg- an internationally recognized and Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard ( PCI DSS) certified payments platform is used by millions of Nigerians to access financial services. Businesses, banks and government agencies leverage on Tingg to perform the last mile payment for farmers and the unbanked in the rural areas.
AgriKore- a customer relationship management (CRM) service that is used by governments, private sector companies, farmers and merchants across Africa and Asia to ensure end to end electronic payments in Agriculture and other consumer facing value chains
In the coming months, both products will be scaled and accessed across all of Nigeria.
