 Almost on every street in most towns and cities across Nigeria, one can find POS agents in small kiosks, shops and sometimes under umbrella shelters, armed with POS machines and smartphones, making cash withdrawal transfers, bill payments and other kind of financial services available to people. Now the COVID-19 pandemic further popularized the activities of these mobile morning agents as big financial service providers adopted the concept, creating several partners and agents across the country who run outlets where people can walk in and carry out most of their financial transactions at a small fee. We will focus on key issues concerning operations, regulations and more on the show. Welcome to Business Insights. I am Justin. Welcome back. First off, the Committee on Public Accounts sprayed the House of Representatives through issue warrant of arrest and governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Gardwin Emefili, the Group Managing Director of the Najin National Petroleum Corporation Melekyari, the sole administrator of the Najir Delta Development Commission and Fiong Aqwa, and the Chairman of the Revenue, Mobilization, Allocation and Fiscal Commission Elias Mbam and five others. Well, that's just one story making round. Let's take a roundup of other stories in the world of business this week still with us. Oil prices rose on Wednesday, extending gains from the previous sections. As improved, risk appetite provided support despite data showing an unexpected rise in U.S. oil inventories last week and a weaker demand outlook due to rising COVID-19 infections. Brent crude against which Nigeria's crude is priced rose by $2.99 to $72.34 per barrel at 7.20 p.m. Nigerian time, having hit a section low of $68.63 per barrel. U.S.-West Texas Intamidate crude futures rose by $3.17 to $70.37 a barrel, after falling to $66.44 per barrel earlier on Wednesday. Power generation in Nigeria dropped below the 4,000 megawatts mark on Tuesday amid the Ideal Kabir celebration. The total generation in the country stood at 3,958.7 megawatts as of 6 a.m. on Tuesday down from 4,270.7 megawatts on Monday, according to data obtained from the Nigerian electricity system operator. On Monday, the peak generation stood at 4,611 megawatts, while the lowest generation was 3,732.1 megawatts, the NESO data showed. The total energy generated on Monday was 100,974.45 megawatts, out of which 99,272.98 megawatts were sent out. The gross monthly distribution by the Federal Account and Location Committee, FAAC, totaled three tiers of government and public agencies amounted to $733 billion Naira, which is USD $1.78 billion in July from June revenue. This was an increase of $127 billion on the previous payout. Petroleum profit tax, company's income tax, import and excise duty, and oil and gas royalties recorded substantial increases over the previous month, while receipts from that were significantly lower. State governments received a total of 143 billion Naira, including 51 billion Naira, representing the 13% derivation for the few oil-producing states. The Senate has called for the sanction of officials in the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation who made Nigeria lose 274.2 million, which is about 54.1 billion Naira on external loans. The upper chamber approved the report of the Senate Committee on Public Account before proceeding an annual vacation last week. The Senate in its resolution asked the Accountant General of the Federation, and met Idri to identify the officers and sanction them for mismanaging public funds in accordance with rule 3,115 of the financial regulations and for gross misconduct. Rule 3,115 of the financial regulations reads, an accounting officer will square it for his failure to manage or spend public funds effectively, or who spends public money without due regard to economy contrary to financial regulations, 415, and fails to reply to the query shall be removed from the shadow and be disciplined in accordance with the public service rules. The President, Major General Mohameda Buhari retired his confirmed determination of the appointment of the embattled managing director of the Nigerian Post Authority Hadizah Bala Usman. Buhari disclosed these in July 12 in an affidavit file that the Federal High Court Legals in a suit brought against him by the Chief Executive Officer of Maritime Media Ltd. Assobex and two others. The affidavit which was filed as Buhari's preliminary objection to the suit was signed by Agand Tabitha of the Civil Litigation Department of the Federal Ministry of Justice at Bujaran behalf of Buhari's Council. A welcome back, those were some of the stories to trend in the world of business this week. Now the emergence of mobile money operators in Nigeria has simplified the everyday financial life of an average citizen who can simply walk into any of their centers to perform a wide array of transactions previously restricted to banking halls. Now stakeholders in the telecommunication sector have disagreed with the central bank of Nigeria on its new regulatory framework for mobile money services in Nigeria. They said that mobile money services should be driven by telecoms companies as against what is prescribed by the CBN. Joining us today is the national treasurer of Amban Olou Babs Aziz. Many thanks for joining us on Business Insight and Plus TV Africa. I thank you very much, it's a pleasure being on here. All right let's talk about the emergence of a mobile money operation in Nigeria. It seems to have gained traction during the COVID-19 pandemic and almost every street you go you just find the presence of kiosk, umbrellas and shops where these operations go through. Is it an all-commerce affair? Wow you see when we have something that is an emerging industry you know mobile money is an emerging trend in the whole world. So on Nigeria I've not really embraced it. We are still lacking and lacking behind but we are really putting things in place to make sure that Nigeria really embraced financial inclusion. That's why during the pandemic you have seen agents out there in news and corners of the of the state are just because the financial institutions are not open for service and people need to carry out some kind of financial services. So and the agents are there most at the last mile so to render some services so that's why you see not that they are just emerging but these have just brought them to the limelights and for people to get more aware that oh there is what we call agent banking mobile money or a operation going out there. Okay you said Nigeria has not actually gotten to the extent that it should be getting you know what would actually say that things have changed over the past five years ordinarily I can't remember the last time I went to the banking hall you know to to make withdrawals or to do some transfers when I can actually just do from the comfort of my mobile phone or if I don't have access to my phone I could just easily walk into one of these you know kiosks and do transfers you know withdrawals and even you know make payments for other financial services. So if you say Nigeria has not really gotten there where are we right now and where should we be going? Yeah if you consider the Nigeria population we have about all about 200 millions so if you look at the number of agents we have out there and the operators you know that we're not really getting there and also we don't really have much financial services like product and services on the mobile money platform as such so to really embrace financial inclusion you know when you talk about financial inclusion just trying to bridge the gap between those in the last mile and those in the city so that they can have access to bouquet of financial product and services via their phone. Okay but looking at it right now one would say that the average mobile money agent or the operator is seemingly taking the place of the average bank do you agree? Oh well since we have we have bank-led operators we have a non-bank-led operators and the techos also are now coming techos we have techos led by the telecoms you you you agree with me that it's it's much more convenient for banks to run because banks cannot be in every way they can't penetrate into every way like the last mile you know the cost of erecting a mobile htm machine the cost of erecting it the maintenance as well so it has a long way to go but let's assume they are going to incur about let's say 1.7 million on erecting a purest a purest machine where people can a htm machine where people can withdraw at a particular location they now look at it okay instead of incurring such amount of money and that will only serve those people within that community if such amount could be invested in agent banking whereby give agents terminals and those terminals will go to the news and clinics of the of the of the community so it's it's go further and it's go to the last mile than just having this htm a machine at a particular location are you getting it because when i'm talking about the htm machine we have people out there to have access to various products and financial products and services and erecting htm machine could not really do that but we need the agents all right okay talking about them these agents right now how do you ensure regulation and to ensure that you know it's not just an all commerce affairs that i said in the start so at least there'll be some sort of control and there'll be some sort of checks i know there's an association you have this amban so what exactly what role does amban play in all of this yeah good you say amban was being incorporated for far back 2015 and we've been incorporated to see how best we can facilitate organize and speed up the agents the operators and regulators okay let's go on before you go for that so just get a bit of clarity so our audience can actually follow you mentioned agents operators and regulators can you break it down who are the agents who are the operators and of course the regulators should be the cb and or fintech exactly just explain so agents are the common man you are seen out there on on the street promoting or projecting the image of the bank or mobile money operators those are the agents those are the ones you are seeing which uh in kiosks uh with spewers and stuff those are the agents then the the operators are the licensed mobile money operators either bank led or non bank led or telco's led you mentioned several names so you have to break it down bank led now telco led and non bank led should break those three down okay the the non bank led are the likes of op baga okay and the likes okay i got it then the bank led we have uh first money we have stomach those ones are under various commercial banks exactly so those are the bank led then the telco's led we have this uh uh uh mimo from the from mtn okay momo and all of that momo from mtn then we have also from 80 salads and also from a the network service provider half gerrym operations as well yeah okay we now have okay let's talk about regulation right now so you mentioned the bank led non bank led and telco led so are those regulators yeah they have been the the regulatory framework is from the from the cbn so cbn regulation this is an ecosystem okay so we are talking of uh mobile money agent banking is an ecosystem that has to well route through the cbn the names the telco's because you can't do it with telcos because all you are doing you are doing from your phone forgets about the pure s are you getting it and the bank also most of these operators they have a an account to be signed a particular bank okay they have their a the miserable where all those transactions route through okay and also the nipsing so nipsing and the cbn are the major resolution in this industry okay so basically now for your association which is amban you regulate just uh the agents yeah what what amban does as i as i explain earlier that okay what we are trying to do to facilitate and also to organize and speed up is speed up the the the the efforts of the cbn towards financial inclusion okay then amban also uh represent the interest of their members through uh through collaboration through synergy interaction on matters related to financial inclusion okay so and our our major focus we focus on agent banking mobile money fraud and security then advocacy and awareness okay tell us about some of your success stories so for have you been able to ensure some sort of sanity you know uh you know financial inclusion is relatively still new in Nigeria and we have not gotten to the level that we should get so tell us some of the things that have happened and how amban has been able to ensure sanity in the system yeah i sincerely when you talk about financial inclusion in Nigeria uh you can't do without amban okay because all this survey being carried out by various organization operators are being done through our platform so they come to us because we are the one that interface with the last mile so they are just an operator so we interface with the last mile so they come to us for the for for all this question and then we tell them this this what they need to do and based on that they formulate their policy so in in verbally now amban is actually like the go between uh you know the last users and of course uh operators and agents but just for the sake of understanding for people who would really want to get into some sort of a maybe agency bank you know uh mobile money um operation is it something that uh would still be lucrative in the next 510 is is it the future of uh you know financial services not just in like maybe globally yeah yes because a lot a lot of uh a lot of uh a financial product and services are still coming are you getting it but what we have out there now we have just a kiko just cashing cash out deposit or withdrawal then build this payment but there are some other services that's when we are talking about financial inclusion that will make people to feel that's feel the impact can you mention some of these services that you're talking about okay good like the other time uh okay let me mention of a particular operator like op for distance you know we have something like all ride are you getting it whereby i want to make a ride use your application okay so it goes beyond just to go for payment of other services we are talking about people having access to bouquet of financial product and services so that we are talking about financial inclusion just to build the gap between those are the last ones that they can also have access to it okay i get it and so that way we have mobile money and agent banking as we all know that agent banking is just like someone representing or projecting the image of the bank out there doing what the bank are doing and what are the major things people understand about do bank are into deposit withdrawal transfer transfer things like that but agents are only limited to that okay you know you cannot do a lending as an agent but as time goes on these are the services we have on the platform okay and even some operators now they have it on their platform okay so operators they wouldn't go beyond just the regular transfers making payments and collections they also do uh you know loan services and of course uh maybe so then again you know for for the sake of those who are really very interested and just may want to get into this you know what exactly do you need i just want you to give you some sort of advice now to start start as a young man who just left school and has not got a job and feels that he should be independent and do something for himself what do you need on the average to be a mobile agent or money agent or an operator well uh if i'm to share with you it's beyond what you have seen out there okay all those people just there with umbrella we call them accidental agents accidental agents yeah why accidental good because they don't go through the proper channel they might just acquire p u s from their banks you know all this uh uh what they call it the the bank uh sales person the market house they go out there they're on targets okay so you just go about and they just go and give out the p u s machines and all but that is what we and asia we are trying to achieve want to want to come on board as an institution that anybody coming to this industry have to be tutored we have to give them orientation is beyond what you are looking out there and i must comment what legal states have just done the legal state empowerment trust fund all right uh most men most of our members facilitates for this project they are doing now they are trying to see how they can empower people on this industry agency banking so there is a syllabus for it we train them for all we is it a whole we got two ways different facilitators so those are the process it's not just you having a p o s no it's beyond that it's a business it's also behind you sit on his own like we have a ocean of bankers we have these uh insurance as well so we are now working towards having such in the industry and that sanity that's what i was trying to do all right fine so basically now although you you answered part of my of my question i just wanted you to because each time on the show we try to give advice you know for startups and those who really want to get insight on how you know to start some sort of business what should they really be doing what's the right thing to do well for anybody that want to start should identify or should be first identify with a reliable operator and also because operate the operator when we started far back 2012 we have been trained but now no training okay and that's why we are having series of issues out there with agent that they can't control but without session we don't have such okay because we train ourselves we have a this conference every year okay to ensure training and retraining of members so that's how many people about the industry all right so invariably what you're saying as we wrap up now is that once the identified you know agents there should be training and so they can actually understand the terms and of course the future of the industry all right thank you so much we have been speaking with the national treasurer of amban or low buffs as these many thanks for joining us look at the issue of financial inclusion in nigeria thanks for the opportunity to share that all right it is still business insight and plus tv africa i trust you have actually gotten one or two tips on how to be a mobile money agent and of course maybe an operator but then we'll leave you with useful insight on how to write an informal proposal that's the size of the show i am justin akademi let's do it again next week bye for now writing an informal proposal the thoughts of writing a proposal overwhelms many people but the task does not have to be daunting informal proposals are written when people need to ask permission to make a purchase undertake a project or write a paper this type of proposal is a way of persuasively putting forth an idea and asking for action to be taken on that idea when writing a proposal consider who will read the proposal and what that person may or may not already know about what you're proposing follow these steps when writing a proposal one state your purpose do this clearly and concisely so that the reader knows immediately why you are writing two give some background information explain why you are proposing your suggestion so that the reader has a better understanding of the problem three state a solution to the problem this is where you give specifics about your suggestion four show costs lay out any costs that will be involved five conclusion wrap it up by restating the problem and the proposed solution