Stanbic IBTC, SURE-PMCH partner on cash transfer services

Chijioke Nelson

 THE advent of the mobile money scheme in the country has been described as a game changer, which, beside enabling customers to conduct basic financial transactions, offers enormous benefits to the economy in general.

  Besides, the scheme, which is currently enabling account opening, airtime purchase, deposit and receipt of cash, as well as payment of utility bills through their mobile phones, is also channeling huge funds in the informal sector through the banking system to engender economic development.

  The Executive Director of Personal and Business Banking at Stanbic IBTC Bank, Obinnia Abajue, who made the observation, said it was in recognition of the need for market-driven partnerships and alliances with the different stakeholders in the mobile money value chain that the lender went into partnerships with the four major telecommunications operators in Nigeria.

  Meanwhile, Stanbic IBTC, in partnership with the Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme (SURE-P), has launched the mobile conditional cash transfer programme tagged ‘Moni for my Phone’.

  The move designed to enhance financial inclusion and boost the cash-less policy in the country, will leverage on SURE-P’s pet project- Maternal and Child Health (MCH).

  The SURE-P MCH mobile conditional cash transfer programme is being implemented in the Federal Capital Territory and 17 other states in support of the demand-side interventions in the health sector.

  The service, now rolling out in selected primary healthcare centres across the country, will enable Nigerian women living in the rural and hard-to-reach locations in the country to receive cash through Stanbic IBTC’s mobile money service as incentive for their increased accessibility and utilization of maternal and child health services.

  Speaking at the launch of the initiative at Dobi Primary Health Care Centre, Gwagwalada, Abuja, the Executive Director of Personal and Business Banking at Stanbic IBTC Bank, Obinnia Abajue, said the partnership represents another major way to leverage evolving technologies and partnerships to enhance value propositions and bring affordable financial services closer to Nigerians. 

  He said the service will take advantage of the lender’s unique bulk payment solutions to transfer money seamlessly and instantly into mobile money accounts. 

  “We are very pleased to partner with SURE-PMCH Project on this strategic initiative. The partnership will help in actualizing our goal of enhancing access to mobile money services by more Nigerians through the Stanbic IBTC mobile money platform. 

  “This collaboration provides another entry point for fast and convenient means of sending and receiving money, and further demonstrates our commitment to continuously deliver innovative products and solutions, part of which includes enhancing the robustness of our mobile banking and mobile payments systems,” Abajue stated.

However, the Executive Director/Chief Executive Officer of National Primary Health Care Development Agency, Dr. Ado J.G. Muhammed, said the SURE-P MCH Project is an initiative that builds on the gains of the Midwives Service Scheme (MSS) and utilizing a combination of supply and demand-side interventions to provide health services to more Nigerian women and children. 

  Recently, an international non-governmental organization appointed the bank to disburse monthly stipends through its mobile money and revolutionary biometric payment solutions to pregnant and nursing mothers in an initiative expected to run over the next five years.

SOURCE:THEGUARDIAN