Financial Inclusion: 45% of Firstmonie Agent Network now Located in Rural Areas

First Bank of Nigeria Limited, a Nigerian multinational bank and financial services company, through its Agent Banking, is taking financial services closer to the rural dwellers, TechEconomy can report.

Actually, the concept of financial inclusion means that individuals and businesses have access to useful and affordable financial products and services that meet their needs – transactions, payments, savings, credit and insurance – delivered in a responsible and sustainable way.

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) usually emphasizes the need for financial service providers to consider rural areas as major terrains in need of their services.

However, in most cases financial technology companies are scattered across the urban centers whereas the rural areas are left to cater for themselves.

But, FirstBank is taking the bull by the horn. As at November 2022, FirstBank has over 196,000 Firstmonie agents spread across 772 Local Government Areas (LGAs) in Nigeria.

These agents have also processed over 1.16 billion transactions valued at N26.52 trillion.

Dr. Adesola Adeduntan the CEO of FirstBank, disclosed these in his recent interview with ThisDay newspaper.

According to him, about 45 per cent of Firstmonie Agent network are in rural areas, “18 per cent located in semi-urban areas and only 37 per cent are in urban areas”.

“Beyond Cash-in-Cash-Out (CICO) transactions, these agents also render other services such as account opening, airtime purchase, bill payment, government-revenue collection, transfer and disbursement, mobile-money (wallet creations, deposits, withdrawals), bank verification number (BVN) enrollment and other non-bank ecosystem value-added support services, in line with CBN’s guideline for Mobile Money and Agent Banking businesses.

“These services have helped to bring banking services closer to local communities thereby empowering them and facilitating their economic development. Through Firstmonie, FirstBank provides convenient low-cost financial access for millions of Nigerians in rural areas,” he said.