Nigeria’s central bank granted an MTN subsidiary a licence to distribute financial services through its existing agents, as the operator awaits a green light to launch its own Payment Service Bank in the country.

In a statement, MTN Nigeria said subsidiary Yello Digital Financial Services had been granted a full Super Agent Licence by the Central Bank of Nigeria, having operated a related pilot project for eight months.

The permit allows the company to extend the scope of existing retailers to include financial services and recruit new agents to sell both banking and communications products.

MTN has seperately also applied for a Payment Service Bank licence, which will allow the company to offer limited financial services in its own right.

Ferdi Moolman, MTN Nigeria CEO, said the Super Agent Licence “forms part of our commitment to contribute towards the achievement of Nigeria’s financial inclusion goals.”

“This marks a very important first step in leveraging our infrastructure to scale our Fintech initiatives,” he added. “We have also applied for a Payment Service Bank Licence, which will enable us in time to offer a broader and deeper range of financial services to those communities and we remain hopeful we will receive approval shortly.”

To gain a Payment Service Bank licence, operators or any other parties applying must act through a subsidiary separate from other business lines, and meet a number of conditions around financing and corporate disclosures.