By InvestAdvocate

Lagos (INVESTADVOCATE) – Global provider of innovative money transfer and payment services, MoneyGram and Nigeria’s top tier lender, Guaranty Trust Bank Plc announced on Thursday the launch of MoneyGram’s receive services across the GTBank network.

“This service will be available through MoneyGram’s cash to account service,” MoneyGram said in an emailed statement.

According to the scheme, customers in Nigeria can now receive money from friends and family in 129 countries directly into their personal GT Bank accounts within minutes.

“These funds can be accessed as customers would normally do on all deposits into their accounts either in person, online or through an ATM,” the statement affirmed.

Alex Holmes, MoneyGrams’s CEO and Tayo Asupoto, GTBank’s general manager, operations division, made the announcement during a signing ceremony at the Intercontinental Hotel in Lagos.

“Remittances are crucial to Nigeria’s economy. Nigerians living abroad sent more than $21 billion back into the country in 2015,” said Holmes.  “MoneyGram’s account deposit service makes it easy and convenient for both the sender and the receiver to transfer and receive funds. We are pleased to work with GTBank and we are proud to be connected to almost 1.5 billion bank accounts in five of the world’s largest remittance receive markets — Nigeria, China, India, Mexico and the Philippines.”

“This collaboration with MoneyGram is a reflection of the bank’s commitment to building strategic partnerships that birth innovative financial solutions and provide our customers with a superior banking experience,” said Asupoto. “With the account deposit service, our customers can receive money transfers via MoneyGram in minutes.”

Remittance is the second largest source of foreign exchange in Nigeria after the oil sector.  According to the World Bank, Nigeria accounts for around two-thirds of total remittance inflow to Sub-Saharan Africa. In 2015, an estimated $21 billion flowed into the country. An estimated $5.7 billion was sent from the United States while about $3.7 billion was sent from the United Kingdom. Other key corridors include Cameroon ($2,4 billion), Italy ($1 billion), and Ghana ($0,8 billion).

At the close of today’s business on the Nigerian bourse, shares of GTBank dipped 0.30 percent to N16.35 per share from N16.40 traded the previous session; losing 0.05 kobo per share.

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February 29, 2016/SimbaPay/APO

Africans living in these EU countries will now be able to send money back home instantly and free of charge

SimbaPay (www.SimbaPay.com), a leading digital money transfer provider, has expanded its instant Africa money transfer service to 5 new EU countries. The new countries are France, Germany, Ireland, Italy and Spain. This follows a pilot that has been running for 3 months in the new EU countries.

Africans living in these EU countries will now be able to send money back home instantly and free of charge. Money transferred via the service to Africa is credited instantly at the destination mobile money wallet, merchant or bank account.

According to Nyasinga Onyancha, CEO for SimbaPay “Our goal of connecting all Africans living abroad to any Mobile Money wallet or Bank Account in Africa just moved one step closer.” He also expressed that “We’re quite pleased to deliver this to Africans in the EU and partner banks in Africa that have been requesting we expand the service to these new territories”.

Future Countries

SimbaPay will be expanding to another 6 countries by the end of March 2016.

According to the World Bank, Africans abroad currently send home an estimated $64 billion annually which is more than double the $30 billion that it receives in Foreign Aid.

How the Service Works

To send money via SimbaPay, Africans living in the EU with a bank account or debit card simply need to download the SimbaPay app from the Apple AppStore or Google Play and proceed to make money transfers straight from any mobile phone, tablet or computer.

Apart from sending money direct to mobile money services such as M-Pesa, customers can also send money to bank accounts in Africa and to Pay Bill merchants such as schools, utility companies, etc.

Accolades

In 2015, SimbaPay was named the Overall Winner at the prestigious Demo Africa 2015 (http://www.apo.af/uzeMNb). SimbaPay was also nominated as finalist in the Best FinTech Innovation category at the annual Apps Africa Innovation awards (http://www.apo.af/ITExrW).

SimbaPay also launched free, instant transfers to all Nigerian banks last year.  In June 2015 it became the first platform in the world to allow Kenyans living abroad make M-Pesa PayBill payments and continues to disrupt the cross-border remittance industry with its focus on extreme speed and convenience.

The SimbaPay app can be downloaded for free from the Apple or Android app stores.
Visit http://www.SimbaPay.com for more information.

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Despite the global financial crisis, which erupted  in 2008 that is yet to abate in Europe and United States of America, estimates from the World Bank has put offshore remittances to Nigeria at $21.0 billion (N3.3 trillion).

The World Bank estimates, which was quoted by FBN Capital, is consistent with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) balance of payment (BoP) data, which show a steady increase in remittance from $14.5 billion in 2005 to $20.6 billion in 2011 with the exception of a small dip in 2008 as a result of the global credit event. The BoP puts gas sales at $7.0 billion, non-hydrocarbons exports at $3.2 billion and transport credits on the services account at $1.6 billion.

The estimates also revealed that remittances in 2012 were equivalent to 8.4 per cent of Nigeria’s gross domestic products (GDP). The World Bank numbers also showed that remittances were the second largest forex inflow in 2012 after crude petroleum.

But experts have called for more transparency from local banks dealing with remittances. They argued that the lack of transparency in the transactions makes the ultimate destination of the remittances is unclear.

According to experts at FBN Capital, “The banks are required to record the transaction but not its purpose. We are therefore obliged to make informed guesses. The predominant transaction used to be a transfer by an emigrant to the town/village of his/her origin. The objective (and scale) has since diversified.”

FBN Capital however submitted that remittances may have contributed to the retail buying frenzy on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) now and before its last crash in 2008. Some, they added,  might have been invested in property development in the larger cities.

They added: “The Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) plans to follow its forthcoming $1billion Eurobond with an issue for the Nigerian Diaspora. It has a modest $100 million in mind and argues that it does not have the track record in this field of, say, Israel or India. In our view the main challenge will be not the unfamiliarity of the product but the poor return: the first Eurobond yields just above 4 per cent and the shrewd investor will do better in other asset classes.

FBN Capital noted that the FGN and also the state governments could tap the Diaspora more often and more substantially for their financing needs.

They also pointed out that the World Bank and CBN series probably understate the inflows since they are limited to transactions in the formal economy through the banking system.

“One reason for making a transfer outside that system is the cost. The bank maintains a database for the cost of remittances: it reveals that the cost of making a transfer to sub-Saharan Africa in Q3 2012 represented 12.4 per cent of the amount transferred, compared with 6.5 per cent in South Asia, ” they said.

Source: Thisday (by Eromosele Abiodun)

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