Hope Payment Service Bank, a subsidiary of Unified Payment Services Limited and Nigeria’s Premier digitalbank is collaborating with the Federal Government through the Ministry of Labour and Productivity to create jobs for no fewer than 77,400 people across the country.
The employment opportunity is part of the exit strategy of the Federal Government’s Special Public Works Programme being executed alongside the bank by empowering 100 Nigerians in each of the 774 local governments.
Speaking at the official kick-off of the collaboration, the Managing Director, Hope Payment Service Bank, Mr. Ayotunde Kuponiyi noted that the digital bank serves as an enabling platform that would interface with 77,400 beneficiaries selected from the Special Works Programme of the FG to exit them into self-employment.
Kuponiyi stressed that the focus of the collaboration is geared towards empowering beneficiaries through the agency banking platform in carrying out financial services such as account opening, bills payments, fund transfer, cash in/cash for Nigerians while they earn commission in return with just the use of their smartphones.
According to him, this initiative comes at no cost to the beneficiaries as they can use their phones to carry out agency banking activities for which they earn commissions on each activity carried out. “Once onboard, these beneficiaries will become HOPE PSBANK agents. They will undergo training on the various activities by the bank at no cost to them”, he added.
“We are very excited about this collaboration with the Ministry, which is in line with the thrust of the social objectives of Hope Payment Service Bank – poverty reduction through financial inclusion and diffusion of digital financial services”, he said.
He also affirmed that the strategic initiative would go a long way in taking or bringing banking closers to Nigerians most especially the unbanked and the under banked resident in the nook and crannies of the country.
“At Hope Payment Service Bank, we leverage the ubiquity of the mobile phone by using the phone number as an account number and also as a means of payment. In addition, Hope PSBANK is in the six geo-political zones of the country – Abuja (NC), Adamawa – Yola (NE), Kano (NW), Onitsha (SE). Port Harcourt (SS), Ibadan (SW) and another regional office in Ogba (Lagos state) and has its head office in Lagos”, he noted.
Also speaking, the Minister of State for Labour and Productivity, Mr. Festus Keyamo (SAN) explained that the Federal Government is committed to creating employment opportunities for the people adding that this collaboration is one in a long list of activities taken up by the government to address the poverty and unemployment gap in Nigeria.
“ We appreciate the willingness on the part of Hope Payment Service Bank to use its platform to solve the unemployment issue in Nigeria through this initiative. We are very excited and confident that this would help to reduce poverty in the land”, Keyamo said.
