Martin Dolan, CEO of CR2, made a number of interesting observations on mobile banking in a recent interview with AllAfrica.com.

The topic of the conversation was the role CR2 is playing in the Cashless Lagos Project sponsored by the Central Bank of Nigeria. The goal of the project is to reduce the costs of handling cash, and to eliminate fraud in the system.

The following four points on the role of ATMs in countries like Nigeria were especially noteworthy.

• By putting a “significantly bigger PC” inside the ATM, CR2 increases the ability of ATMs to do transactions more than five-fold.

• The larger PC also enhances the ATM’s ability to interact with Internet and mobile channels.

• In providing cardless access to ATMs, CR2 reduces reliance on often expensive-to-produce chip and PIN cards.

• Maintaining low barriers to entry is important to customers even if KYC (“know your customer”) remains “the biggest problem” for mobile banking.

Dolan also noted that more than 95% of the transactions in Nigeria are via ATM according to the Nigerian Central Bank.  Be sure to check out CR2’s new banking technology at FinovateEurope next month in London!