By 
By Oluwatobi Opusunju
The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to foster growth in the country’s payment system ecosystem. The MoU was signed this week at the apex bank’s Headquarters in Abuja.
The MoU affirms areas of collaboration between the two regulators as they concern financial inclusion strategy already being driven by the CBN. The strategy also provides responsibilities of the two organizations towards the achievement of government’s objective on payment systems, including but not limited to mobile money services.
In promotion of the CBN’s regulatory framework for payment system, the new partnership will help ensure the robust provisioning of telecommunication network infrastructure by telcos for seamless mobile payment services.
Executive Vice Chairman (EVC) of NCC, Prof. Umar Danbatta noted the commission’s critical review of the existing framework for the regulation of mobile payments in Nigeria, within the membership of a committee comprising of the CBN, NCC, Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) and the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS) while speaking on the new deal.
He said the Commission is looking forward to signing the revised strategy of the Anti-money Laundering (AML) aimed at preventing, detecting, indicting and control of money laundering as well as financial terrorism.
The Governor of CBN, Mr. Godwin Emefiele commended the NCC on its efforts towards protecting the interest of telecom consumers and service providers, eves as he highlighted the critical importance of telecommunications on the Nigerian economy.
