Mobile roaming software solutions company Roamware has announced that it is to work with a mobile payment consortium in Nigeria. 

The FETS (Funds & Electronic Transfer Solutions) consortium is focused on increasing mobile payment usage in Nigeria. FETS has selected Roamwares Macalla financial services platform as the basis for its new eMoni mobile payments service.

FETS is a non-bank service provider that has recently been awarded a license by the Central Bank of Nigeria to roll out mobile payment services. 

“About 80% of the Nigerian population is unbanked,” says Oluwadare Owolabi, MD at, FETS. “This gap in the banking industry has made people carry around a lot of cash, which increases risk. Globally, we are seeing a cashless revolution. In developed countries it is normal to make most of your daily payments electronically. The policy initiative of the Central Bank of Nigeria to increase mobile payment usage will accelerate Nigerias transition to a cashless economy. We looked for a partner that could help us create a state of the art payments infrastructure that would be fast as well as secure. Roamware emerged as the best choice with their combination of global operator deployment experience and the innovative Macalla platform that enables us to roll out mobile payment services quickly. We look forward to a long and fruitful partnership with them.”

Ray Kehoe, director of sales of mobile financial sevices at Roamware, says: “Our solutions are proven to dramatically reduce the costs associated with deploying and operating services and to increase revenue. The Roamware Macalla platform will enable FETS to offer a convenient payment solution to the banked and unbanked Nigerian population that will improve the banking culture of urban and rural populations.”