Fidelity Bank partners MoneyGram, launches outbound transfers

Fidelity Bank Plc in partnership with global money transfer giant, MoneyGram, has launched outbound money transfer services, thereby giving Nigerians the opportunity to transfer the Naira abroad.
The newly launched MoneyGram outbound money transfer service, Naija Sends, allows Nigerians to send money abroad through any Fidelity Bank branch in Nigeria while the funds are received in dollar or the currency of the receiving country.

With this service, Nigerians can now send money to countries like UK, USA or any of the 200 countries from Nigeria through Fidelity Bank.

Speaking at the launch in Lagos, the Managing Director/CEO, Fidelity Bank, Mr. Nnamdi Okonkwo, stated that the sender does need to be a customer of Fidelity Bank, saying that the service is open to everybody.

He stated that already, the bank has done 156 outbound money transfer transactions worth about N35 million through six of its branches in one day.

Okonkwo noted that the bank would bring its capacity in Straight-through-Processing money , over which it has won three consecutive awards from Deutsche Bank, to bear on the new service.

He said, “As you may know, over the years, Nigeria has been a receive-only country, but now under the leadership of the new Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN’s governor, we are now a send country as well. We all have relatives abroad who from time to time send money home, and we also know that a lot of us here need to send money to people abroad.

“In the past, some feel people feel that the only way to send money abroad is to go the bank and fill Form A. Alternatively; some simply go the Black Market and buy dollar. What the Central Bank has done is to make it easier for you to send money outside Nigeria and the person you are sending it to will receive dollars.

“For us at Fidelity, we are happy about this development and we will capitalize on our efficient processing records, for which we have won a couple of awards, to ensure that we process this very smoothly.”

Also speaking, Kemi Okusanya, Regional Manager, Anglophone West Africa, MoneyGram, commended the new management of CBN led by Godwin Emefiele, for adopting the initiative, saying that it has been the yearning of many Nigerians over the years.

She stated that with the launch of outbound transfer, the CBN can now have a accurate data for forecasting and planning, adding that the partnership isn supportive of CBN’s financial inclusion programme.

She assured of the security of the system, saying that Moneygram has enough technology to monitor transactions going through its system. “You can’t just go through our network to send money without our knowing who the sender and receiver are. So, we have processes in place to track fraudulent practices,” she said.

- Culled from: http://www.vanguardngr.com