Standard Chartered Plc plans to close half of its branches in Nigeria in order to transition to digital banking.
According reports retrieved by Freelanews, the Nigerian subsidiary began liquidating some offices in December and may reduce its number of locations from 25 to 13.
According to the site, the bank abandoned the plans due to pressure from mobile money providers, citing an industry document.
Standard Chartered Bank plans to improve its mobile banking services by hiring agents to reach out to new customers and process cash deposits and withdrawals around the country.
The report added that some insiders said the development is part of the company’s strategy to join other First Bank and Zenith Bank in agent banking.
Nigerian banks are currently embracing digital banking to compete with fintech products across Africa and tap into the outbreak of mobile money services.
MTN Nigeria and Airtel Africa Plc acquired preliminary authorisation to establish a payment service bank (PSB) in Nigeria last year.
The two telcos would unite financial services via digital methods to bank low-income earners and others who do not have access to banking institutions for transactions through PSB operators.
Airtel’s subsidiary, Smartcash Payment Service Bank Limited, was also granted permission to act as a super-agent.
Super agents are businesses that have been licensed by the CBN to recruit agents for agency banking, which involves providing financial services to communities on behalf of banks in order to increase financial inclusion.
The initiative will benefit Nigeria’s unbanked population, which accounts for 36 percent of the adult population, or 38 million people.
Ojelabi, the publisher of Freelanews, is an award winning and professionally trained mass communicator and a recipient of the D9112 Superstar Icon Award, who writes ruthlessly about pop culture, religion, politics and entertainment.
