General News
Loyalty & Innovative Services Keys to e-Payment Adoption – Ogungbade
Tunde Ogungbade is the managing director of Global Accelerex. He spent the first decade of his career in consulting and has worked with global companies like Price WaterCooper, Ernst and Yong and other companies in UK, USA and Nigeria. He spoke to chike onwuegbuchi on issues around CBN e-payment policy as well as value his company is bringing to the e-payment space.
Global Accelerex
Global Accelerex is a company that is a player in the e-payment industry. We focus primarily on solving business problems through our value added services. A lot of things have transpired over the last several years in the e-payment industry in Nigeria but the question that needs to be answered is how do we bring value to the consumers and retailers? Global Accelerex is focused primarily on looking at how industry solutions can be created to bring value to the retailers and consumers so that adoption can be easy, the industry itself can expand and the penetration that everyone is hoping for can be achieved.
Role in the CBN e-Payment Policy
Our role is multifaceted. If you look at that policy, it talks about merchant acquirers, issuers, payment terminals service providers (PTSPs), card distributors and suppliers. There are different people in that ecosystem; we do not play one role, we play multiple roles so we do not identify with a specific role in that regard. However, we have terminals that we market, that we exclusively planned and designed to address the purpose in this market so you can call us a PoS terminal supplier. We also can be classified as a payment terminal application developer because we create value added solutions. You can also call us a PTSP because we focus on the deployment side of PoS. How do you make it operational beyond just dropping the PoS, how does the merchant or the retailer and the consumer get value out of it? We are looking at industry solutions to solving problems. A case in point is retail, how do you create loyalty around that so that the consumer can come back. We are beyond just supplying PoS terminals as a distributor, we are beyond just focusing on deployment side, we are looking at the whole ecosystem and creating value by fixing those different labels in the guidelines.
Solving Business Problems
For example what happens today is that a bank is in partnership with a PTSP and in trying to get people to use the PoS, what do they do? They get the PTSP help with the deployment, they get the software, they do the deployment, drop it off and hope that retailer starts using it and derives value from it. Let’s look at what happens- the value chain. The retailer is thinking, number one- I don’t need this thing, there is a policy that is forcing it on me but I don’t need it. Number two, it is cutting into my margin and at the end of the day I would be paying something to use the system. Number three, the consumer is not really attracted to this thing and it is going to take me a long time to bring value. If you look at the value chain itself there are disincentives across it. What we are saying about solving business problem is that we are looking at creating solutions that thinks about the consumers; thinks about the retailers, thinks about the bank, thinks about the whole needs and infrastructure and how everyone can have a win-win collaboration in that space. How do we do that? We look at something that has been tested and that is loyalty management. How consumers can feel with an incentive not to bring out cash and bring out a card. We are looking at that as we look at the different industries that we deploy PoS terminals to. If you are in a retail shop, we look at what will make you come back to that retail shop, such as having a sales promotion tending towards getting a discount. We are looking at the whole ecosystem.
For the banks, we are saying I’m helping you grow people who will bring float to your account so that you can then operate profitably. Everybody across the chain needs to get value out of it and there are solutions that we have created that specifically addresses that problem and that is what we mean by value added solutions.
How Positioned Are You to Deliver?
We have a business platform and we run it on an infrastructure that is scalable, the scale is what we thought of from the ground to up because we want to ensure that as people come en mass on our platform, it can deliver the service. One of the challenges for PTSPs today is that there is no infrastructure for the support. There is need for retailers to know that there is a phone call away and someone can provide them service quality and assurance.
We are bringing excellence in service delivery on the platform which means we have resources and people that have been trained to deliver the service in a way that tracks things from cradle to grave. We are not just thinking about installing the PoS but what happens throughout the PoS lifecycle, how is it working for this merchant. Customer service experience is important. On the platform side, we deliver value added services so much so that a retailer can hold a platform and know what happens and also what will happen as far as forecasting is concerned. That is what we are talking about.
Challenge of Infrastructure Support
It will affect our service but we are working very closely with Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) in looking at different ways of providing infrastructure support. Technology always goes through the time it was first deployed and the time it starts working. That is happening today in the industry. We are doing some research and development, specifically on the CDMA side to make sure as we are planning our geographic deployments, we are looking at the difference in topology of distribution and coverage of mobile networks services so that, that can be part of our deployment strategy. We know that the challenges are here today but technology will leapfrog it so when the GSM towers can accommodate everybody plus these PoS terminals. The question that needs to be answered at that time would be how am I getting value out of it and we are preparing for that because we will overcome the technology challenges.
Assessment of Cashless Policy
My assessment of it is that the infrastructural challenges are there and can hinder or create a bias in the minds of two key and very relevant voices in this whole thing which are the retailers and the consumers. I think the ongoing awareness can help on one side, the regulators are aware of that and I am sure the CBN, NIBSS and all other players involved are doing everything to educate consumers and the retailers that this is no difference between what is happening with your phone call, it is the same problem. It is a capacity issue and as the industry deals with that or looks for alternate technology that can allow data to access towers separate from voice, technology will be overcome.
There is a better technology the industry should be thinking about which is the economic impact. When you think about the economic impact, there should be some alliances between regulators to try and provide the capital to build the infrastructure so that the industry can thrive. The whole tower arrangement that brings about these problems is a capacity problem. If you are going down the Third Mainland Bridge at 4pm, the problem is capacity but at 2pm, the traffic is not there. How many people are trying to come on at the same time and how do we plan for that? Regulators can think about the benefits of this cashless policy, the liquidity that it creates and the amount of money coming into the banking system as pay back to create an incentive to look at regulators encouraging mobile network operators to invest in expanding capacity to accommodate PoS terminals to function well because on one hand, there is a disincentive on their side because there is no incremental revenue with the small data traffic on their networks.
Products
We have exclusive partnership with a company called XGD, which is one of the top 10 PoS manufacturers in the world. We have partnered exclusively with them, we have inspected their facilities physically, although they have the capacity to meet the Nigerian market demand and their PoS device is one of a kind. We know that it is able to provide three solutions in one. It provides Near Field Computing (NFC), it has the ability to take a scan and also provides biometrics. Why is that important? Another thing that hinders technology is- Is someone going to take my money? Biometrics answer that question. Another thing that can help retailers is the fact that they can also determine prices upfront. That device has all these capacities. Obviously, there is an enhancement but the device itself provides the printing capacity. The possibilities with the application are numerous and we have ability to use the software development kits to create variety of solutions that can address a number of things from the market place.
Transaction Led and Non Transaction Led Services
We understand that sometimes the business problem might not involve a transaction which is what we call business intelligence. We have some segments of clients that we’ve engaged with that have need for intelligence that is not transaction based and we have specific solutions because we bring expertise not just technology. We have expertise in logistics, marketing and we are fusing all those key points together to create value added services to some of our clients that have that need.
If it is payment based, we will address the problem through business intelligence to add value to what they do.
On the other hand, there are some people that need to have a transaction to be able to provide intelligence and we look at that as well. These things are uniquely tailored to clients needs. What we do first is listen to the client. We bring value. We understand the business as far as the industry is concerned. Is it in the manufacturing sector, we have strength in that area. We have people who understand the business language; we have analysts and thought leaders in that area.
e-Payment in Nigeria
It is a journey; it is not a sprint, it is a marathon and we are getting there. The dynamics to win this ecosystem is going to evolve over time but we can start recording some early success. One of the things we believe would happen is rapid adoption like consumers taking on the likes of facebook approach to e-payment. When people go to the bank to get a card we believe that there is going to be value created for them beyond spending cash and that is what is happening. It goes viral like a social media group just as everybody wants to get on facebook. Same thing must happen and how is it going to happen? We the industry must look for innovative ways to attract the retailers, to bring them and say there is something worthy of saving the time to go to the ATM to withdraw cash to give to another person who needs to put it in another person’s account. That can happen electronically. Loyalty and innovative business services would make consumers want to use it. We have started going in that direction and I believe it would happen.
Taiwo Oyedele, Chairman of the Presidential Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms Committee, has cautioned that failure to implement Nigeria’s new tax laws by January 1, 2026, would leave the vast majority of workers and businesses at a disadvantage.
Taiwo Oyedele
Speaking on Channels Television’s The Morning Brief, Oyedele said postponing the reforms would mean that “the bottom 98 per cent of workers remain overtaxed,” while businesses continue to grapple with multiple taxation and miss out on exemptions.
He added that small and unprofitable enterprises would still be subject to minimum taxes, and hidden VAT charges would keep driving up the cost of essentials such as food, healthcare, and education.
His comments come amid calls by former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, Labour Party’s 2023 presidential candidate Peter Obi, and several civil society groups for a suspension of the reforms. Oyedele argued that rather than halting implementation, specific areas of concern should be identified and corrected.
“So, we need to be clear about what we are asking for,” he said. “Even if it is established that there have been substantial alterations to what the National Assembly passed, my view will be to identify those provisions… and go ahead to implement the law as passed by the NASS, while you address the issues as to how they got in there in the first place.”
Oyedele acknowledged that even the version passed by lawmakers contained sections requiring amendment, citing issues with referencing and definitions.
He also addressed controversy over alleged discrepancies between the gazetted laws and those approved by the National Assembly, noting that without access to the officially harmonised bills certified by the clerk, it was difficult to determine differences.
He pointed to Section 41(8), which initially appeared to require a 20 per cent deposit but was later excluded from the final version, stressing that some draft materials circulating in the media did not originate from the House committee. “I think we should allow them do the investigation,” he said.
President Bola Tinubu has already signed the four tax reform bills into law, describing them as the most significant overhaul of Nigeria’s tax system in decades.
The reforms — the Nigeria Tax Act, Nigeria Tax Administration Act, Nigeria Revenue Service (Establishment) Act, and Joint Revenue Board (Establishment) Act — are scheduled to take effect on January 1, 2026, under a unified Nigeria Revenue Service.
Banks across the country have raised fresh warnings to customers over the rising risk of digital fraud linked to the use of public Wi-Fi networks for banking and payment transactions, particularly during the festive season when electronic spending typically surges.
Wi-Fi
In customer advisories issued ahead of Christmas and New Year celebrations, banks cautioned that fraudsters are increasingly exploiting unsecured public internet networks in places such as airports, hotels, shopping malls and restaurants to gain unauthorised access to bank accounts.
Access Bank, one of Nigeria’s largest banks, over the weekend, via emails, alerted customers that the holiday period remains a prime window for cybercriminals seeking to harvest sensitive financial information through compromised networks.
“The festive season is here and there is no better time to keep your account safe. Please do not share your PIN, OTP, CVV, or full card number with anyone no matter how tempting the offer is. Verify transaction alerts via the Accessmore app and avoid using public Wi-fi for banking transactions”, the bank stated.
According to cybersecurity experts, public Wi-Fi networks can allow attackers to deploy techniques such as “man-in-the-middle” attacks, where fraudsters intercept communications between users and banking platforms, potentially stealing login credentials or transaction details.
Nigeria’s banking sector has continued to grapple with rising digital fraud as the adoption of mobile banking, instant payments and card transactions accelerates. Industry data from the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS) show that fraud losses across digital payment channels have remained in the tens of billions of naira annually, with spikes typically recorded during peak spending periods such as year-end festivities.
Banks say the growing sophistication of fraud schemes has made customer awareness a critical line of defence, especially as criminals increasingly target behavioural lapses rather than technical loopholes.
Access Bank advised customers to verify all transaction alerts through its AccessMore app and to act swiftly if suspicious activity is detected. “Block your account immediately by dialing *901*911# or chat with us via the LiveChat icon on AccessMore if you suspect your account has been compromised,” it said.
Other banks are also reinforcing similar messages, urging customers to rely on secure mobile data or trusted private networks for financial transactions, while avoiding links, offers or messages that promise unusually high returns or urgent payment requests.
Analysts note that while banks have invested heavily in cybersecurity infrastructure, fraud prevention remains a shared responsibility between financial institutions and customers.
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has continually stressed that there was a need for Fintech innovation, collaboration and trust as it will shape Nigeria’s digital financial future, while insisting on regulatory compliance among Fintech players.
Its Governor, Olayemi Cardoso, while speaking during a keynote address at the opening ceremony of the ongoing Nigeria Fintech Week 2025 in Lagos, themed: ‘The Fintech Ecosystem Symphony: Orchestrating Nigeria’s Digital Future’, organised by Fintech Association of Nigeria (FintechNGR), explained that the Nigerian Fintech ecosystem would require harmony between innovators and regulators, between inclusion and security, and between competition and collaboration, adding that only through such balance can Nigeria orchestrate a future that advances innovation, strengthens trust, and enhances financial inclusion.
As digital payments continue to dominate Nigeria’s retail and commercial transactions, banks say vigilance will be key to preventing festive cheer from turning into financial loss. For customers, banks stress that caution, verification and restraint, especially on unsecured networks, remain the most effective safeguards against fraud.
By Tim Akano
Leo Stan Ekeh (LSE) is an extraordinary human being. He is extremely hardworking, hugely brave, and massively intelligent. He is a shrewd businessman but with a cathedral-size heart of butterfly
Leo Stan Ekeh
I’m a product of LSE’s generosity. But not only me, I am close enough to know. We are uncountable.
I was always with him after office hours in his office twenty years ago when he was constructing a church in his place of birth. He was so committed to details and beauty that when the church was roofed and he went for inspection and discovered some misalignment, he instructed the contractor to remove the roof and redo it, without minding the extra cost coming from his pocket.
There was this physically challenged fellow that LSE bought a car for, including a driver to make life easier for her.
During one of his birthday celebrations, he told me, Tim, I am not inviting my friends for any birthday party this year, all the money I would have used in buying expensive wine, I am donating everything to charity
LSE & I
He actually looked for me when I started New Horizons. He read my interview in the Vanguard news paper and asked his staff to look for me.
Prayer:
May each of us receive a telephone call before the end of 2025 that will change our life’s trajectory for good for ever in Jesus name, Amen.
I did.!
Our conversation on that fateful Friday went like this:
LSE: Tim, I read your interview in the newspaper. I would like us to meet.
Tim: You are our LEADER in the Technology ecosystem, Sir.
I can come to your house tomorrow Saturday morning for a breakfast.
LSE: Tim, that’s good, I will be expecting you by 8am tomorrow in my house.
By 8am the following day, I was in his massive, intimidating house.
As I entered the premises I said a simple prayer: The God Almighty who is blessing LSE, please Daddy God be kind to me also in my entrepreneurship journey Amen.
That day the breakfast meeting went well. He wanted to see the man behind the ambitious vision of transforming the ICT education in Nigeria.
He saw tomorrow!
1 LSE First Intervention: Two years after I started my company, New Horizons, I ran out of cash, even to pay salary was a prayer item every 30th of the month. That was May, 2007 it remained just 72 hours for Heaven to fall on my head, metaphorically speaking, that is!
I needed N10M to stop HEAVEN FROM CRASHING ON MY HEAD!
Banks in Nigeria are irrelevant to Start-ups, except and until you START WALKING, Banks will not come to your assistance in Nigeria.
It is O.Y.O (On Your Own) for every Start-up. If you don’t have God 100% on your side, don’t dabble into entrepreneurship in Nigeria!
This is why over 80% of Start-ups failed in Nigeria. In America, it is about 50%.
LSE was in Abuja on this particular Thursday. I called him and requested to see him. He told me to come.
Our conversation went like this:
LSE: Tim, I know you are keeping well.
Tim: My chairman, I am strong in faith, but in reality, heaven is hot on my side o! I need help, Chairman.
LSE: What is the matter, Tim?
Tim: I need N10M soft loan to keep afloat. It is urgent, critical and time- bound.
LSE ok, Tim, see me on Monday (that meeting took place on a Thursday).
Tim: My chairman, I am not exaggerating the criticality of my situation. by Monday it would be too late because Heaven would crash on my head in another 72 hours without the N10M! And it would be all over.
LSE adjusted himself, he breathed in , he looked me straight in the eyes. I wouldn’t know what LSE saw in my eyes that day.
But he stood up, went to the inner room and he came out with his cheque book. He gave me an Access Bank cheque for N10M, which I later refunded 3 months later without interest.
I survived, heaven didn’t fall that day, glory be to God and thanks to LSE.
LSE intervention 2:
This time we had grown, having survived the ABIKU YEARS (The first 5 years of Start-up are the ABIKU YEARS, years of premature, sudden death. If you survive the first 5 years, your chances of living to celebrate your 20 years in business are bright). We did, all gratitude to God.
I got a business that required huge capital to execute- very big money, which was beyond my capacity.
I went to my destiny- helper again. He is never tired of seeing me. He picks my calls on the first ring. But I don’t abuse the access too. No frivolous conversations. No irrelevant calls. Every call is about matter and mission critical
This particular day LSE was looking extremely tired, having over flogged his body.
He told me he had been sleeping in the office for about 3 days, busy putting his papers together to enable him close a massive business deal, which he eventually got, after fighting like a lion whose cub was taken by a lone leopard!
LSE overwhelmed every opposition. He fought like Mohammed Alli, the world’s greatest boxer of all time. LSE won.
And that changed everything for him, too, forever. Fortune favours the Brave
Our conversation that day went like this:
LSE: Tim, congrats you are doing well, I can see. Indeed I instructed all my staff to make sure they read any article you published (“I felt flattered”).
Tim: Chairman, I need your help, KONGA is not ready to give me the products I needed on credit and I don’t have cash to pay and the client will not pay me until after 9 months.
Tough one, indeed.
LSE: Tim, I will be honest with you, there is no way KONGA would give you products worth N500M (10 years ago money!) on credit.
Indeed, we held a meeting on Monday over your matter, the resolution of the Zinox Group is that you must look for cash before you can get the products. Let me tell you, my staff made me to sign-off on our resolution that as the Chairman of Zinox , I, LSE will not go behind to do the opposite of what we all agreed to, and I signed. Tim, I am sorry, my hands are tied!
As of that time, some of the young people LSE helped disappointed him badly. So bad, some souls are ungrateful.
Tim: Chairman, I know some of the people you helped even went to the extent of wrongfully blackmailing you in the media. I know that for a fact.
But Chairman, I am different. I am Tim Akano, I won’t disappoint you.
I will remain eternally grateful if you can still think out- of -the box and help me out.
I added: Chairman, you recall you were the one who looked for me that you would give me a helping hand in life.
I think my last statement touched him.
LSE Tim, I will give you my personal cheque. Here is the cheque for you, take it to KONGA and pay for your goods to meet your deadline.
Tim On getting to KONGA, from my steps and tone, the staff knew something positive had happened.
I confidently presented my cheque to Loretta & Co, the lady managing our account in KONGA then
They were shell shocked that God pulled it through for me another time, using Leo Stan Ekeh.
There were many more positive interventions, which I will reserve for my memoir.
Lessons: The reason behind the rise and rise of Leo Stan Ekeh (LSE) has to do partly because of his massive generosity, most of them are done silently.
Yes, LSE is a shrewd businessman, but he has a heart of a butterfly.
2 LSE is unconquerable and himself and his lineage will remain so because of several lives he has impacted positively
3 We are all products of people’s generosity. No one is a self-made man. In my own corner, through the TIM AKANO FOUNDATION, I am giving back in thousands folds all the kindness I am enjoying from people like LSE & others. I’m not withholding any kindness from people who need it when it’s within my capacity. God saw my heart, too, that when he must have helped me to stand, I will light thousands of candles.
It was William Shakespeare who admonished his followers to tell him all the good things they wanted to tell him while he was still alive because tributes written in beautiful prose means nothing to a dead person.
I congratulate LSE children, they have a great father in and his legendary generosity will always speak for them up to the 4th generation., as the Holy Bible said. LSE children should be proud of their father, he is a Lion, an Eagle and a butterfly, (LEB) all together at the same time.
@LSE: Sir, if you manage to read this short public appreciation, which I was inspired to write in a wedding event (the couple is taking over one hour to come out, instead of joining people who are anxious, I decided to use my idle time to pay you this tribute today), I want you to feel proud of yourself; what you have achieved will take an average person 10 lifetimes to achieve.
Your positive numerous interventions in my entrepreneurship journey have germinated and I am also touching lives- like you- in thousands across Africa, not only in Nigeria, especially with regards to Youth Empowerment.
I am eternally grateful, my chairman, my destiny-helper.
My prayer for you my Chairman, LSE: The Lion, the Eagle, the Butterfly (LEB) is for God to keep you continuously in sound, divine health, peace and happiness- that you will still remain strong at 120 years of age like the Biblical Moses who miraculously escaped physical depreciation in his eyes, strength and mental magnitude.🙏
Gratitude!
Gratitude!!
Gratitude!!!
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