Ecobank has joined a collaboration between the Nigeria Interbank Settlement Scheme, NIBSS and the four major telecommunications operators, Etisalat, MTN, Airtel and Globacom, to offer a new and innovation mobile money payment solution, mCash.
The new mobile payment solution enables easy payments using the mobile phone for account holders mobile money users. It facilitates low value retail payment and extends e-payment benefits to payers and merchants, mostly within the mass markets.Deputy Managing Director, Ecobank Nigeria.
Tony Okpanachisaid the enlistment of Ecobank into the mCash platform is in line with its policy to provide seamless and innovative services to customers. He was optimistic that the payment system would further engender cashless payment strategy of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and stimulate commercial activities in the nation’s economy.Tunde Kuponiyi, Head, Consumer Distribution, Ecobank Nigeria said “mCash is certainly the way to go.
This will further bring into the banking sector micro payments in our society. Apart from reducing use of cash, it will also be quite beneficial to our teeming customers and the economy.” He added that the Bank had recently introduced innovative e-payment services such as MasterPass QR into the financial landscape, explaining that it allows people to pay for services using mobile phones. “It also enables micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in Nigeria to receive digital payments from millions of customers.”In an earlier comment, the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of NIBSS,
Mr. Ade Shonubi had said “the whole intention of mCash is to broaden the opportunity for people who rely mostly on usage of cash to find convenient means of making payments electronically. The CBN has been pushing the cashless initiative for a long time and we have seen significant gains but a lot of people who have benefited so far have been the banking customers. And we need to deepen and reach out to a lot more people, as we begin to make real the dream for financial inclusion and as we begin to realise that a lot of government’s social programme will touch a different set of people.”mCash utilises Unstructured Supplementary Service Data, (USSD) code in payment processing.
Merchants can deploy mCash as a payment channel by registering with Ecobank, who will issue them an 8-digit seller code which buyers or payers need to use while making payments to them. A customer who wants to make payments through mCash, has to dial the universal code,
*402*SellerCode*Amount#. Upon dialling the code, the name of the seller will appear and a list of banks a customer wishes to make payments from. The user can then select Ecobank and input Ecobank Mobile PIN to authenticate and complete the transaction. Upon completion of the transaction, both the buyer and the seller will receive cash confirmation of debit and credit messages instantly. Only mobile numbers linked to a user’s BVN are allowed for mCash transactions.