Indigenous digital payment service provider, Xpress Payment Solutions Limited, says it is driving financial inclusion by taking financial services to the unbanked, particularly, rural dwellers.

The Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of XPSSL, Oluwadare Owolabi, stated this while speaking on “payment initiatives: Driving digital financial services innovation,” at the 19th annual digital pay expo conference and exhibition in Lagos.

Owolabi said that the desire of the Central Bank of Nigeria to increase the population of Nigerians engaged in banking might not be achieved until payment services were taken from major cities and towns in the country to the rural residents

He, however, urged the CBN to evolve measures to enable it address the activities of unauthorised operators in the industry.

Owolabi said, “The CBN should have a machinery to understand what is going on in the market. They should have machinery that drives report to them. They should have a machinery to see what is happening outside of us. CBN is a regulator and should do more to cover every nook and cranny of the country.

“There is a lot of work from all parties – from the country, Nigeria, from the regulator, CBN, from each party providing services.

He added, “Transactions are being seen across board, funds that are being transferred are recorded on a daily basis by the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System and we can see that things are moving but the money moving is still restricted to the rural areas.

“The people need to be financially included; it’s not only in Lagos. Until we take digital payment services to the nook and cranny, particularly the villages, we are not going to see much successes in what we do.”