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FBN Holdings Plc is becoming a leading provider of payments and financial services technology solutions as the number of digital banking users continues to grow, while consumers seek day-to-day convenience.
Of course, digital baking use has propelled net profit, products holdings, balance sheet growth, and transaction activities.
For the first nine months through September 2023, FBN Holdings saw the number of internet and mobile banking subscribers spike by 49.40 percent to 10.20 million from 6.80 million as at September 2022.
Volume of transaction processed was up 51.70 percent to 643 million, from 424 million the previous year.
The lender saw a 22.10 percent increase in the value of transition processed to N39.03 trillion as at September 2023 from N30.65 trillion the previous year.
It is important to note that First Bank has been upgrading its mobile banking application, FirstMonie, as it accelerates financial inclusion using USSD. The lender also uses smart devices to underpin internet and banking revenue.
FirstMonie is FirstBank’s agent banking business, targeted at driving financial inclusion and gender empowerment, taking banking to the unbanked/underbanked.
FirstMonie is present in all states and 772 (of 774 local) Local Government Areas in the country (September ‘23), and has more than 221,000 agents in the period under review.
The lender empowers women through the product. Interestingly, 25% of FirstMonie agents are female as it paid N22 billion to agents in 2022.
“Despite immediate competition in the e-business space, we see further growth headroom as we are uniquely positioned to capture value within the financial Inclusion offerings,” said the Bank.
FirstMonie Agent network continues market expansion with more than >221k(4) agents (FY 22: 196.6k).
The government and Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) have been working hard to shrink the financial exclusion gap and there has been improvements.
More Nigerians are opening bank accounts, while financial technology firms are luring young people with easy accessibility thorough the use of latest technology.
The Enhancing Financial Innovation and Access (EFInA), a financial sector development organization that promotes financial inclusion in Nigeria says 38 million citizens-36 percent of adult population-remains completely financially excluded.
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