New agency banking service set for unveiling in Nigeria

Phoonepos Technologies Limited, the Nigerian subsidiary of United States technology company, Phoonepos Technology Solutions, Inc., has announced plans to unveil a technology that allows interested subscribers convert their mobile phones to Point of Sales (POS) terminals and offer agency banking services across the country.

According to the Founder, Phoonepos Inc., Mr. Olaniyi Adeosun, the service called phoonePOS, addresses current gaps in the financial services marketplace; especially the requirement for huge entry-level investments in POS equipment acquisition, inherent hardware maintenance costs, unreliable internet services for agency banking service delivery in Nigeria.

“PhoonePOS is a response to the ever-growing need to make Nigeria a better place where ubiquitous and reliable financial services are on offer. Often, equipment acquisition cost and unreliable internet service hamper possibility of people to access banking services,” he said.

Adeosun stated that in line with Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) policy to promote financial inclusion for more Nigerians, phoonePOS is poised to further drive this quest across the country with the new innovation it has brought into the marketplace.  The company, according to him,is focused on encouraging female entrepreneurship in financial service delivery and will offer a 15 per cent discount on payments to every female that signs up to the service. The discount, he noted, would be credited to beneficiary wallets directly.

“Although there is a lot of progress already made due to government’s financial inclusion policy, a lot of ground remains uncovered, especially in places with little or no internet services. These are some challenges that we have come to address,” he revealed.

Adeosun, who doubles as the CTO of the firm, explained that the pilot stage of the service would commence in November 2020 in selected cities across Nigeria; including Lagos, Abuja, Ogun, Oyo, Kano and Rivers states.

According to him, registration for the service is very simple and costs next to nothing, as it only requires signing up via the internet platform or dialing a short code to provide all necessary required details.

He said further that twomajor advantages of phoonePOS over many other solutions are that the service neither requires internet to function nor the use of ATM cards to have access to cash through registered agents. This, he explained,means that the service can be operated everywhere regular mobile telephony services are provided, adding thatservices offered on the platform include, but not limited, to funds transfer, cash-out, cash-in, bills payment etc.

“We have decided to help democratize access to agency banking services by offering a solution that helps people to use their phones to offer these services. The era of internet limiting access to agency banking services is gone with phoonePOS. As more Nigerians embrace technology, we believe we must also deploy the Nigerian spirit and develop solutions that will address the real challenges and also offer world class services. This is what phoonePOS is all about,” he said.

Accoeding to Adeosun, Phoonepos currently works with leading International and Nigerian agency banking partners.

In his words: “Already, industry experts have attested to the reliability of our service offering and we have some of the top technology firms as partners. This forms the basis for the number of banks that have interconnected with our service.”

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