Only an idiot would trust a banker. Rumor has it that while the cockroach would be the last to exist after Armageddon, the bankers would be the second to the last.
The smell of easy money, when the economy is tight and Naira is testing out a new parachute, is hard to resist. I’m not a prophet but I predicted this some months ago that by year end, only a few banks won’t offer xyzAmount# service.
Instant airtime recharge is the new kid on the block for banks and it’s simply amazing for the average Joe on the street. If your nail is cropped short like mine or bedeviled with fungi like my cousin’s, then not having to scratch a recharge card anymore is a dream come through.
So, with mobile money short codes deployed to more salubrious usage, I can at least give a rundown of what the money men are up to.
| Bank | Code | Partner |
| Access Bank | *901*Amount# | Clickatell |
| Citibank | Corporate customers. No interest, I guess | |
| Diamond Bank | Probably in the works | |
| Ecobank | *326*Amount# | Clickatell |
| Fidelity Bank | *770*Amount# | InterSwitch |
| First Bank of Nigeria | *894*Amount# | InterSwitch |
| First City Monument Bank | *389*214*1*Amount# (Seriously?) | |
| FSDH Merchant Bank | Probably not interested | |
| Guaranty Trust Bank | *773*Amount# | Clickatell |
| Heritage Bank | *322*030*Amount# | InterSwitch |
| Keystone Bank | *322*082*Amount# | InterSwitch |
| Rand Merchant Bank | Merchant bank – probably no interest | |
| Skye Bank | ||
| Stanbic IBTC Bank | *909*Amount# | Clickatell |
| Standard Chartered Bank | Ehm.. | |
| Sterling Bank | *822*Amount# | Clickatell |
| Union Bank | Definitely something cooking | |
| United Bank for Africa | Definitely something cooking | |
| Unity Bank | *322*215*Amount# | InterSwitch |
| Wema Bank | *322*035*Amount# | InterSwitch |
| Zenith Bank | *966*Amount# | Cyberspace |
Rumor has it that the money is good, and I know at least 2 banks doing over N500M a month. In fact, one of them has strolled beyond N1B in airtime sales a month. Typical margin is a neighborhood of 5%+/-.
Feedback has been positive but the major sand in the Garri of this has been network performance – customer getting debited but airtime doing what Buhari is doing with ministerial nominations. MTN, being the largest telco, probably didn’t see this coming and so every time their service has a problem, which is like every minute, something goes wrong and customers reach for their machetes. Another annoying fact is you need to have a minimum of N12 to be able to do airtime on MTN although some banks are offsetting that money for customers.