NIGERIA:Ericsson urges CBN, telcos on mobile money

The President and Managing Director, Ericsson Nigeria, Rutger Reman, has advised stakeholders in the information communications (ICT) space in Nigeria to close ranks and ensure the success of mobile money in the country.

He said the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the Communications Technology Ministry, deposit money banks (DMBs), the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and other relevant stakeholders in the industry to ensure that the scheme succeeded because of its overwhelming benefits to the economy.

Reman, who spoke on Digitalising Nigeria: The role of Ericsson in Lagos at the weekend, said the punitive cost of printing, maintaining and managing cash would be reduced to the barest minimum while the CBN will be able to ascertain the quantity of currency in circulation at every given period of time.

According to him, mobile money will reduce the incidence of frauds, dangers to life associated with carrying huge cash, deepen financial inclusion.

He said the firm’s m-commerce solutions has edge in proactive maintenance to increase quality and lower cost, evolve from traditional business to business (B2B) relationship to direct B2C, secure and capture after-market sales through customer intimacy. He added that it enables new revenue streams and innovative partnerships

“The solution is explicitly tailored to provide a new channel enabling financial inclusion, providing easy-to-use and secure next-generation mobile financial services, including those who do not have access to traditional banking services.

‘’Ericsson m-commerce solution includes the development of a mobile money platform, systems integration, learning services, managed services and support,” he said.

He said 40 per cent of global mobile traffic is carried over Ericsson networks with leadership position in Long Term Evolution (LTE ) in world’s top 100 cities.

According to him, ICT enablements facilitated by the technology giant include smart transport, smart buildings, smart travel, smart work, smart agriculture and land use, smart services/smart industry, smart grids (including smart homes).

He said 70 per cent of the world’s population would live in cities by 2050; 1.8 billion would experience water scarcity by 2025; 2 billion vehicles on the roads in the world by 2035.

He said technology would help address the wastage in the power and water sectors, adding in the area of waste management, technology has done wonders.

Also, its Head of Network Products, Fisayo Araoye, said the in-building wireless market would more than double by 2020, to reach about $6 billion; Indoor wireless data traffic would grow more than 600 per cent by 2020.

SOURCE:THE NATION