Western Union (WU) President & CEO Hikmet Ersek, Dr. Robin Renee Sanders -WU Advisor on Africa SME Initiatives, WU Regional VP for North&Central Africa Aida Diarra @ Press Conference on WU's focus on Nigeria, Lagos Nigeria
Western Union®
President and CEO says Nigeria is key to Africa
expansion
With more than half a million locations1
in 200 countries and territories, Western Union has been present in Africa
since 1995 and has more than 27,000 Agent locations spanning 50 countries across
the continent. In Nigeria alone, Western Union has more than 4,800 locations
represented by a majority of Nigeria’s banks.
On
a two-day visit to Nigeria, Western Union’s President and Chief Executive Officer,
Hikmet Ersek, said, “Western Union’s vision is to become the world’s premier
financial services provider for people around the globe who have unmet
financial needs. To achieve this, we are pursuing a multi-product,
multi-channel strategy to enable consumers to manage their finances any way and
any time they want. Nigeria is at the forefront of leading our commitment in
Africa.”
“Speeding financial inclusion, giving more
people access to basic financial services, is at the heart of Western Union’s investment
and commitment to work with partners in other industries to offer new products
and services,” he said. “We are already demonstrating this in
Nigeria with remittances into retail, direct-to-bank and through mobile.”
“For our consumers, this means the
ability to move money for personal growth, empowerment and personal
achievement. For
all of these reasons, and more, I am delighted to be here in Nigeria – the world’s
fifth largest2 remittance receiver – to see Western Union’s multiple
channel traction taking shape, in association with multiple collaborators,” he
said.
“As a leading global payments services company,
we are also committed to continuing to bring best practices in the areas of
consumer protection, fraud prevention and anti-money laundering,” he added.
Aida Diarra, Regional Vice President, North
Central Africa, Western Union, said, “When Western Union commenced its services
in Nigeria, the company moved money from 69 countries into Nigeria; in 2012, we
moved money from 196 countries. This is testimony to the fact that an integral
part of inclusive financial services is a robust and regulated multiple channel
network, globally and locally.”
“The possibilities for the future here in
Nigeria are strong. We believe that, as we continue to cooperate with other
companies and regulators, we can make good use of our network in Nigeria to
introduce new channels and a broader range of services that provide basic
financial services and promote financial inclusion among millions of people,”
she said.
The company’s first bank agent in Nigeria, First Bank of Nigeria (FBN),
inked an additional five-year agreement with the company this month.
Account Based Money Transfer (ABMT), a service that allows the receipt
of funds transferred through Western Union directly to bank accounts, is
currently available with GTBank and Stanbic IBTC. ABMT will also be launched
with Eco-Bank.
More recently, Mobile Money Transfer (MMT) was introduced, offering
Nigerian consumers the choice to receive transferred funds into their mobile
wallets. It is currently available on Virtual Terminal Network (VTN) with
access to 500,000 m-wallets. It will be further
expanded with a launch with eTranzact in the coming months. These products form
the base of Western Union’s innovative digital product strategy.
Western Union
also plays a key role in financial inclusion in Nigeria, which goes beyond
enabling consumers to receive money. The company and the Western Union
Foundation have partnered with the Tony Elumelu Foundation, the Bank of
Industry (BOI) and the United States Agency for International Development
(USAID) to support entrepreneurship and help create growth for small- and
medium-sized business enterprises in Nigeria and across Africa. Through the
unique opportunity, provided by the African Diaspora Marketplace and related
programs, Nigerian businesses have been empowered with - development grants,
business training and access to pitch to investors and bankers for equity and
loan financing.
Note: Dr. Sanders is serving as Western Union's Advisor on its Africa SME Initiative
