Glo ‘Xchange’ takes cashless banking to the grassroots

Globacom, Nigeria’s first indigenous telecommunications company, has launched Glo Xchange partnering banks in facilitating mobile money and cashless banking in urban and rural Nigeria.

According Ebenezer Kolawole, Globacom’s  Gloworld coordinator, the programme will empower about 10,000 proficient agents over the next 12 months to deliver the much expected mobile money revolution in Nigeria.

He said the Glo Xchange agents will operate from designated mobile money outlets such as kiosks, shops, pharmacies, supermarkets and mega stores in strategic locations across the country.

“Glo Xchange was introduced to speed up financial inclusion in the country as well as take cashless transactions and e-payments to the grassroots in order to enable mobile phone users to make payments, do transfers, buy airtime, pay utility bills such as, DSTV, GoTV, and PHCN among others,” he said.

The initiative will also help “pay expressway tolls and conduct any such financial transactions without cash exchange, but through the mobile phone”.

“All businesses that join the Glo Xchange Network will get the reward of being the pioneer for the mobile money revolution in Nigeria”.

Kolawole added that it would partner Globacom’s mobile money partners such as First Bank, Ecobank, Stanbic IBTC Bank and Zenith Bank.

At the launch in Lagos, Esaie Diei, head of the company’s mobile money financial business, described the initiative as a secure and encrypted platform where even those working on the platform “cannot see customers’ transactions”.

“A dedicated USSD short code, *800# that will allow Glo Xchange agents to access the mobile money services of any partner Mobile Money Operator (MMO) has also been provided,” he said.

Present at the launch were Yinka Shorungbe, country head, Ecobank Mobile; Chioma Okoye, Stanbic IBTC’s network manager; and Nnenna Igbani of First Bank’s agent management and mobile financial services department.

The initiative is expected to be Nigeria’s first mobile money super-agent network.