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mVisa App Relies On Four Key Pillars, Relishes Mobile Money in Nigeria

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mVisa, a mobile solution by Visa will bring the benefits of easy and secure digital commerce to financial institutions, merchants and consumers in Nigeria based on four key pillars.

The four key pillar revolve around the consumer, banks, merchants and real-time information gathering.

To the consumer, mVisa will hand him control over payment on mobile; the merchant will experience easy-to-adopt, easy to use on the solutions with a different experience on loyalty  rewards.

Also the banks should expect huge activation and usage and cash (physical) displacement. With the application, Visa said, banks might witness less expenses on card issuance and withdrawal on ATMs as consumers and merchants are to interface mostly on mVisa.

In terms of usage, the aim is to spike mobile money in nigeria, as it will assist operators and regulators on gathering data that will help shape the mobile money space, while assisting in acquiring and significantly scale up merchants and reduced operating expenses.

These were contained in a presentation by Andrew Torre, president for Visa Sub-Saharan Africa, during the app launch in Lagos recently.

He said that through mVisa, the Company is working with Diamond Bank, Fidelity Bank and First Bank to allow customers of participating banks to make purchases in-store or online, pay bills and move directly through P2P transfers irrespective of the phone type- smartphone or feature phones, especially through their banking apps.

Also, Access Bank, Ecobank, United Bank for Africa and Zenith Bank will go live with mVisa in the coming weeks. Nigeria is the first market to provide customers the convenience of making cross-border payments using mVisa.

By downloading the mVisa app on either a smart or feature phone, a consumer can then link that device to any type of Visa account — debit, credit or prepaid. Once the app is active, consumers can initiate a transfer of funds to a merchant, utility or individual mVisa account holder. Transactions are processed via Visa’s global network, VisaNet.

He said, “Small and medium merchants in particular, no longer have to invest in expensive point of sale infrastructure as mVisa gives them the freedom to accept payments in a convenient, secure and affordable manner that their customers trust.”

“We are very excited to see more and more merchants come on board every day as they begin to understand the benefits that mVisa brings, including real-time notifications of payments and access to sales and transactions history. We have campaigns lined up for the coming months to support our merchants and encourage new customers to experience mVisa at various locations across Nigeria.” Torre said

Visa Targets Mass Mobile Payment Market with mVisa
He said with the eyes on mass mobile money market, mVisa will become the best way to pay, available to anyone cross merchants, communities in Nigeria.

“In fully to live to our brand promise, we needed to digitise the commerce space. mVisa encompasses mobile form factor, digital banking and low cost acceptances. Digital banking has been out there, as our banks are operating on it. But we are embedding the architecture to it. The most interesting thing is low cost acceptance. The small market seller should find it easy and convenient to make and accept payments.

Merchants on mVisa
Merchants already on the platform include but not limited to DSTV, Genesis, hardRock, PayU, Quickteller, Konga, SPAR, while payment service providers are Flutterwave, Interswitch, Innovectives.

Digital Disruptions
According to Uttam Nayak, senior vice president, Digital Solutions at Visa, the app, will engender peer to peer (P2) e-payment innovation as money transactions, bill payments and shopping  (P2M) are witnessing high levels of innovations to attract consumers.

“Front-end innovation is facilitating the gradual decline in use of conditional banking channels and migration into other payment options- priority mobile payment. Such developments are forcing traditional players to improve their technology platform and operations to be agile and develop innovative capabilities,” Nayak said.

He said that the value proposition of non-traditional players like mVisa is real-time capabilities and settlement.

The mVisa implementation in Nigeria benefited from the Visa Developer Platform, which allowed all partner banks the ability to integrate the mVisa APIs directly into their mobile banking apps.

While rolling out a new solution with a bank typically can take a very long time from development to implementation and testing, utilizing the Visa Developer Platform interface reduced the time taken significantly. This helped to speed up the number of banks who have been able to roll out the mVisa solution in Nigeria.

mVisa is now live in Nigeria, Kenya, India, Rwanda and Egypt with plans to launch across Africa.


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E-Financial

Nigerians Trust Bitcoin for Financial Security than Sanks – Report

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Nigerians have more trust in Bitcoin-based systems than in traditional alternatives such as banks and government, a new report by Elastos, an open-source blockchain website, has stated.

Nigerians Trust Bitcoin for Financial Security than Sanks – Report

According to its inaugural BIT Index (Bitcoin; Innovation & Trust), emerging markets are driving the adoption of Bitcoin, with Nigeria and the UAE leading the charge.

The report revealed that 66 per cent of Nigerian respondents and 35 per cent from Brazil had more confidence in Bitcoin-based systems than alternatives like banks or national governments, compared to just 16 per cent in Germany and 21 per cent in the UK.

The survey also revealed that 20 per cent of Nigerian consumers use Bitcoin to conduct transactions at least once a day, while 67 per cent would have more trust in Bitcoin to protect their life savings than traditional services like banks, local governments, and cash.

According to the platform, the research was compiled from online interviews conducted with 1,407 self-defined ‘tech savvy’ respondents in Brazil, Germany, Nigeria, South Korea, the UAE, the UK, and the US.

It stated that the interviews were completed by a third party, a registered market research company, between March 30 and April 4, 2024.

“When it comes to ensuring the integrity of online transactions, emerging market respondents also revealed their relative confidence in Bitcoin compared to alternatives,” it indicated.

According to the report, 66 per cent of Nigerian respondents and 35 per cent of Brazil have more confidence in Bitcoin-based systems than alternatives, such as banks or national governments, compared to figures of just 16 per cent (Germany) and 21 per cent (UK) who feel the same.

Meanwhile, Jonathan Hargreaves,  Elastos’ global head, Business Development & ESG, described the BIT Index’s inaugural findings as indicative of the role the ‘global south’ was playing in the adoption of decentralised currencies such as Bitcoin.

“The BIT Index offers a fascinating and sobering insight into the industry. The fact that over two-thirds of Nigerian consumers and a third of their counterparts from the UAE and Brazil would feel more confident entrusting their life savings to Bitcoin rather than traditional financial instruments speaks volumes about the protagonism these regions are already playing.

“In many instances, the driving factor is the absence of viable, accessible alternatives to, for instance, conduct cross-border transactions or mitigate the impact of inflation,” he said.

According to Chainalysis, a cryptocurrency research firm, Nigeria’s crypto transaction volume grew year-over-year to $56.7bn in 2023.

It stated that the country’s crypto economy continued to grow despite market turmoil in the space.

On the contrary, the government has been taking strong measures to restrict and clamp down on cryptocurrency exchanges and platforms operating in the country.

 

 


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CBN Licenses Unified Payments as Second Provider for PTSA Services for Nigeria

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Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has awarded the country’s second Payment Terminal Service Aggregator (PTSA) license to Unified Payments, Nigeria’s premier financial technology company, following a rigorous and transparent process,

CBN Licenses Unified Payments as Second Provider for PTSA Services for Nigeria

The move is targeted at enforcing existing requirement that all transactions from point-of-sale channels in Nigeria must go through a licensed Payment Terminal Service Aggregator (PTSA).

The CBN is enforcing the laws to clamp down on financial crimes and other market misconducts and it aligns with the CBN’s objectives to fully track all electronic transactions in Nigeria, given the propensity of using such transactions to fund insecurity, violent crimes, banditry, kidnapping as well as other vices.

According to one analyst, “By awarding a second PTSA license, the apex bank has proactively responded to industry operators who had expressed serious concerns about channelling all transactions through a single aggregator, the Nigeria Interbank Settlement System PLC (NIBBS), as has been the case for some years.

“With the new policy direction, payments service providers would henceforth route all transactions through either of the two licensed Companies.”

Other financial analysts and industry players have commended the Central Bank, affirming that “the move can be a massive step in the right direction. They also commended the open, transparent, and inclusive manner via which the selection process was managed, and the license awarded.

“The selection process, which lasted for months, began with an invitation for qualified organisations within the payment industry to submit an Expression of Interest document, alongside other requisite documentation and additional capital requirement of N1 billion.”

 

The new management of CBN decided not to give the license out without going through an open process – and for the first time in licensing a payment service provider – the apex bank went through a public bid process outlined in its publication of Friday, January 5, 2024, in different national newspapers. At the end of the process, Unified Payments emerged as the most preferred service provider.

Unified Payment Services Limited, also called Unified Payments or UP, is a shared service provider within Nigeria’s financial technology sector owned by a consortium of Nigerian banks. For over 26 years, the firm has provided payment technology to banks and other industry operators. The first and only non-bank entity that is a principal member and licensed acquirer of all of American Express, Mastercard, Visa, UnionPay and Payattitude. Unified Payments facilitates both local and international transactions.

Formerly known as ValuCard Nigeria Plc, Unified Payments led the way to introduce POS payments in Nigeria under its card scheme known as ValuCard which is the first payment card to be issued in Nigeria. The company later transformed into a scheme-neutral and option-neutral service provider enabling transactions under different schemes.

The company has continued to provide leading payment technologies and services, enabling different operators to leverage its capabilities and licenses, enabling prompt and seamless transactions.

Among the shareholders of Unified Payments are First Bank, Access Bank, United Bank for Africa (UBA), Guaranty Trust Bank Plc, Zenith Bank and Fidelity Bank. Other shareholders are Citibank Nigeria Limited, Ecobank of Nigeria Plc, First City Monument Bank Plc, Keystone Bank Ltd, Polaris Bank Ltd, Stanbic IBTC Bank Plc, Sterling Bank Plc and Wema Bank Plc.


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CIBN says Recapitalization will Empower Banks to Lend more to Economy

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Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria, CIBN, has expressed support for the ongoing banking recapitalization exercise saying it will empower banks to lend more to the economy.

CIBN President, Dr. Ken Opara stated this yesterday while speaking at the annual lecture of the institute in Lagos, with the theme “Improving Availability of Credit in the Nigerian Real Economy: The Critical Importance of Liquidity.”

Okpara noted that the volume of credit to the real sector activities namely agriculture, manufacturing and services is low compared to their critical role in driving economic growth.

Consequently, he called for more credit to the real sector, saying, “I   propose that we consider offering more credit to these key sectors and particularly the agriculture sector. It is for this reason that the Recapitalization exercise is a welcome development.

“The recently announced upward review of the Minimum Capital Requirements of Nigeria by the Central Bank of Nigeria would further empower banks to extend more credit to the economy’s productive sectors.”

To address these factors impeding credit to the real sector, Okpara suggested that, “The government needs to improve further the ease of doing business and infrastructural development, such as power, roads, rail networks, etc.

“Setting up industrial centres where these companies can co-habit and share common infrastructure. Harmonize and reduce the various taxes and levies, including locating them in a single hub.

“Banks need to be deliberate in de-risking these companies via Capacity building programmes, and Advisory services.

Specialised Financial Institutions can be created in addition to the Bank of Industry (BOI), especially credit guarantee agencies and risk-sharing institutions, to further facilitate the deepening of credit as practiced in countries such as China which significantly transformed its economy.


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