First Bank’s Firstmonie, MMIT Partners on BlackBerry Social Commerce in Nigeria

Firstmonie, the mobile money service of First Bank of Nigeria Limited and MMIT (Mobile Media Info Tech) are partnering with BlackBerry in Nigeria to enable social commerce in BBM™, the popular private social network.

This collaboration will enable Nigerians access and pay for digital content available on BBM shop using their Firstmonie mobile wallet, from FirstBank.  BBM users in Nigeria will be able to personalize and enhance their chat experiences. This includes being able to easily browse and download stickers that will bring some more fun to BBM chats. Most of the content has been localized allowing users to express themselves in local lingo. Now BBM users can say “How you dey?” and much more in a fun “Naija way” to brighten up their chat.
According to the Head, Cards and Physical Channels for FirstBank, Mr. Chuma Ezirim, this new service is another step towards leveraging evolving technologies to bring fast and convenient financial services closer to the unbanked and under banked Nigerians, a move that clearly aligns with the CBN Financial inclusion initiative. “By enabling people to use their mobile phones as a tool for carrying out financial transactions and accessing digital content, FirstBank is delivering long-term benefits for both our customers and the Nigerian economy as we continue to put our customers first,” he further explained.
“Today, we are breaking new grounds by extending our mobile payments capabilities into BBM, which is the social network where Nigerians spend most of their time.” says Jide Akindele, Founder of MMIT. “This is just the start.  Our merchants, who are increasingly advertising on BBM to reach their customers, will also be able to leverage our collaboration with BlackBerry to convert these advertisements into e-commerce sales”.
MMIT is an established and key stakeholder in Africa’s mobile money ecosystem. MMIT’s mobile processing platform is connected to some of the largest mobile wallet providers in Sub-Saharan Africa. International merchants leverage MMIT’s connections to offer their customers secure and convenient services.