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By Chijioke Ohuocha
LAGOS, Aug 29 (Reuters) - Nigeria's biggest telecoms firm
MTN MTNN.LG has launched a mobile money transfer service,
targeting those without bank accounts, and said on Thursday it
plans to become a payment services bank once it obtains approval
from the central bank.
The success in east Africa of M-Pesa, the mobile money unit
of Kenya's Safaricom, has convinced investors and the industry
that financial services are the next growth area for the
telecoms sector, where prices for basic services are falling.
Nigeria said last year it would allow telecom companies to
provide banking services, aiming to give millions of Nigerians
without bank accounts access to mobile money services.
MTN Nigeria was awarded a licence by Nigeria's central bank
in July to provide financial services. Majority owned by South Africa's MTN Group MTNJ.J , the
company runs Nigeria's biggest mobile phone network serving
around 56 million people.
MTN Nigeria's CEO Ferdi Moolman said its Yello Digital
Financial Services Limited (YDFS) unit would extend access to
simple money transfer services and other financial services.
More than half of Nigeria's population of 180 million do not
have a bank account.
Shares in MTN Nigeria, which was listed on the local bourse
in May, fell 1.49% to 144.50 naira on Thursday, valuing the
telecoms firm at 2.95 trillion naira ($9.64 billion).
MTN Group appointed Rob Shuter as chief executive in 2016 to
oversee the formulation of a new strategic growth plan and look
for new revenue streams as competition and regulation hit profit
margins.
Shuter, who has previous banking experience, has been
revamping Africa's biggest telecoms group, seeking returns in
everything from financial services to music and video games.
($1 = 305.9000 naira)