People familiar with the matter stated that the
international bank took the decision as the finance industry comes under
pressure from mobile money providers.
The London-listed lender’s local unit already started to
shut some offices in December and would eventually operate only 13 branches in
the West African nation, a document seen by Bloomberg News showed, down from
about 25 previously.
Standard Chartered is instead strengthening mobile banking
and recruiting agents to reach new customers and handle cash deposits and
withdrawals across Africa’s biggest economy, said the people, who asked not to
be identified because they aren’t authorised to speak publicly.
A spokesperson for the bank declined to comment and said it
would address future plans at the “appropriate time.”
The shift by the bank mirrors efforts by Nigerian lenders to
embrace digital banking amid a fintech boom that’s put much of Africa at the
cutting edge of the revolution in mobile money.
Instead of opening more physical branches, banks including
Access Bank and First Bank of Nigeria are also curbing costs by building
networks of authorised agents, or people within communities to sell their
products and services.
Standard Chartered has focused on corporate banking since
establishing a presence in Nigeria in 1999.
But it recently looked to expand its retail base and
outlined a target in 2019 to grow the number of its customers fivefold from
100,000 in about two years by using digital technology to on-board clients
faster.
The lender also plans to start digital lending to process
small loans quicker and increase the volume of retail credit, according to the
people.
With a population of over 200 million people, of which more
than a third have no access to financial services, Nigeria has seen an
explosion in demand for payment solutions and lending outside traditional
banking.
Businesses have been building on the rapid spread of mobile
phones. Financial-technology companies have also benefited as customers sought
to reduce physical contact during the pandemic.
The bank plans to close 50 per cent of its branches and
reduce global office space by a third, as it seeks to save costs by permanently
adopting changes to working practices and retail banking that accelerated
during the coronavirus pandemic.
In April last year, Chief Financial Officer of the bank,
Andy Halford, said the emerging markets-focused lender would slash its network
to 400 from 776 branches after they experienced less usage during worldwide
lockdowns in 2020. At the time, the Financial Times reported that it will take
a $500m charge to do so.
StanChart’s physical footprint has been declining over the
past five years. It operated 1,068 branches across Asia, the Middle East and
Africa back in 2016, but Covid-19 has hastened a trend to online and mobile
banking.
Halford also reiterated plans to reduce city-centre offices
by a third after staff indicated they wanted to continue working flexibly.
In 2020, it signed an agreement with IWG to allow many of
its 95,000 employees to work from “near-home” locations rather than commuting
into cities.
Last November, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) granted
approval in principle for Payment Service Bank (PSB) licences to MTN Nigeria
and Airtel Africa as part of its objective of enhancing financial inclusion and
the development of the payment system through a secured technology-driven
environment.
It is expected that the enhanced financial inclusion would
help increase access to deposit products and payment/remittance services to
small businesses, low-income households and other financially excluded entities
through high-volume low-value transactions in a secured technology-driven
environment.
Recently, the financial technology space in Nigeria has
become competitive with a reported 250 companies operating in the system,
according to Nairametrics.
In simple terms, financial technology aims at delivering
financial services to consumers and may include internet, apps, mobile phones
and other technological devices.
Companies in the fintech space offer services such as money
transfer, depositing a check with a mobile phone, applying for credits, raising
funds for business, among others.