CIBN trains agent banking operators in professionalism, begins certification

With the move to address the capacity gap, the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN) has started training the point of sale (POS) agents, mobile money agents, and bank customer service officers on professionalism.

This is just as the institute has begun tutorial sessions for students registered for the October 2024 diet examinations for the Agency Banking Certification across the country.

The training by the CIBN is done in support of industry associations comprising the Association of Mobile Money and Bank Agents in Nigeria (AMMBAN), Association of Mobile Money Operators of Nigeria (AMMON) and Association of Mobile Bank Operators (AMBO).

Member of the CIBN sub-committee on the Agent Banking Certification programme, Fasasi Atanda, said that Nigerians could now look forward to more knowledgeable and professional POS agents, mobile money agents, and bank customer service desks that know what to do when they are debited by POS operators.

He said there would be more understanding from security agents,g who would see certified agents and treat cases from agent transactions professionally.

“There are a lot of complaints about the proliferation of unregistered agents in the ecosystem. What we are doing is banking because when you are doing cash-in cash-out, and account opening among others. Most of these services require professionalism.

“The account opening that we pushed for resulted in a none palatable experience because a greater percentage of accounts opened at agent locations were used for fraud. This made some banks stop account opening at agent locations.

“Not every agent can handle Biometric Verification Number and National Identity Number. Any agent that wants to handle these registrations must be certified by CIBN. We have seen that most of the errors seen in the process are from the agent location.

“They do sharp practices, unethical practices, not doing due diligence due to poor training and lack of professionalism, if they had passed through this process of certification, they would have been trained on maintaining ethical standards,” he said.

The immediate past President and Chairman of the Council, CIBN, Dr Ken Opara, said the Agent Banking Certification programme (ABC) was introduced to address capacity challenges in the ecosystem.

“Agent banking has been the key driver of financial inclusion, which creates financial access points and ultimately eradicates poverty,” he said.

One of the organisers, the Executive Director of FIC Professionals Network Plc, Segun Shonubi, stated that the main purpose of the tutorial sessions was to help students understand the course better and enhance their performance in the examinations.

He said the examinations, which are scheduled for October 8 and October 9, would be conducted through remote online proctoring to enable students to write from the comfort of their homes or any place of their choice.

However, he said the first in the series of tutorial sessions has been held on July 20, 2024, and ended on July 28, 2024.