Usually, when customer service champions are being celebrated, we are more often than not drawn to customer services personnel in large and corporate organisations. Little or nothing is said about customer service providers who service us across informal touchpoints.
This is why Quickteller Paypoint, Interswitch Financial Inclusion Services' (IFIS) agency banking business is recognizing the services of its transacting agents whose importance in the country's financial system may seem unnoticed.
In celebrating this year’s Customer Service Week, Quickteller Paypoint spotlighted top 10 transacting agents from across four cities in Nigeria - Abuja, Lagos, Ibadan, and Port Harcourt. The agents were feted by representatives of Quickteller Paypoint at exclusive ceremonies held across these cities.
From Quickteller perspective, these agents are deserving of the recognition because they are providing very crucial services within their communities. Especially during the general lockdown period, they remained reliable transaction touchpoints for their communities while banks and other financial institutions were closed. With their services, families were able to send and receive money to and from their loved ones. And when the lockdown eased and people were still skeptical about going to crowded places such as banks, Electric Distribution Companies, etc. they remained a safe and convenient alternative.
So, while this year’s Customer Service Week speaks to ‘Power of Service’. The Quickteller Paypoint agents truly epitomize the power of service as they were able to sustain their communities by enabling continued financial transactions, ensuring the already included remain included, the underserved better served while bringing the unbanked into the formal financial space thereby closing the financial inclusion gap.
The race to achieving significant financial inclusion has become pertinent globally. In a report by Global Findex, financial inclusion is on an upward trajectory, with about 1.2 billion adults globally having bank account since 2011. Between 2014 and 2017, adults who had accounts with either financial institution or through mobile money grew from 62 percent to 69 percent. In developing countries, the number rose from 54 percent to 63 percent.
However, in Nigeria, only 64 percent of adults had access to financial services as at 2020. This figure shows that 38 million Nigerian adults, or 36 percent of the Nigerian population, are yet to be financially included. The Federal Government of Nigeria through the Central Bank of Nigeria, banks, fintechs and technology companies such as Interswitch are lending their weight to ensure that this population demographic are not entirely left out of the mix.
Interswitch through the Interswitch Financial Inclusion Service (IFIS) is championing the course to improve Nigerian’s access to financial services. Through the Quickteller Paypoint agents the business is collaborating with ordinary Nigerians across the country to improve on the Nigeria Financial inclusion index.
It is therefore noteworthy that loyal and committed collaborators such as the Quickteller Paypoint agents are recognized during auspicious celebrations such as the Customer Service Week. The recognition of such uncommon heroes also shows that Interswitch is indeed a customer-centric organization, recognizing its customers for servicing their own customer!
Recently, Quickteller Paypoint embarked on an expansion campaign across Lagos and Abuja recruiting more agents and empowering them to start their own businesses with which they will provide valuable services, earn money and subsequently empower others.
As it stands, the brand has more than 35,000 transacting agents across Nigeria, bringing payment closer to more Nigerians. Across these Quickteller Paypoint agents service centres, customers can easily pay their bills, make cash deposits, cash withdrawals, airtime recharge, insurance services, and a lot more.
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