Interswitch webpay, a dying goldmine

Interswitch the leading payment gateway in Nigeria, in fact has a near monopoly stronghold on the e-payment industry in Nigeria. Though, it is supposed to be the preferred gateway for online payments but has scared web merchants away with its exorbitant setup fee of N150, 000. Interswitch charges N150, 000 for setup fee, 1.5% per transaction and N2, 000 flat on transaction above N150, 000. I’d expected that it automatically transfer its presence on the card system to online but I must say, its strategy is not internet-business friendly.

2Checkout a top brand in online payment gateway accepts credit cards (Master card, Visa card, Discovery and many others) on its platform. The setup cost is just $49 and 5.5% + 55 cent per transaction which is still high but takes off the setup huddle.

It won’t belong that competitors grab the space with the development going on around the web space in Nigeria. I have spoken with couple of innovators and we should expect many more e-payment platform before the year end. We could even have a Nigerian M-Pesa before December. GTB (they have a discounted web pay platform that works fine with Interswitch) recently launched a master card powered debit card and gradually disconnecting from Interswitch.

Personally, I think the setup fee should not be more than N10, 000 while they make up the money from the commission from turn over on the site operating on their platform.

What do you think about Interswitch strategy? Do you think they will change soon or be forced to change by the market? How do you think new entrants with influence their decision?

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Mobile Payment on the rise, Kenya and SA where is Nigeria

This post is a food for thought for my fellow technologist from Nigeria. Mobile Payment on the rise, Kenya and SA where is Nigeria?

Nigeria currently have more than 75million mobile phone users and no single viable mobile payment system to drive m-commerce in the country. I want to believe we have creative developers, sound investors and a ready market for the product but what is happening?

Our market will grow faster if people can pay for services as fast as they think about it! What should we do?

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Naijacards.net is a scam! Please stay off the site

As online payments in Nigeria continues its growth, now comes attached challenges of an e-society, phishing!

Phishing usually involves cloning of reputable website to trick people into believing that they are on the right side, hence making they pass on sensitive data.

Naijacards.net says it gives you 15% discount on every card purchase from them. After choosing a card of your choice, you are asked to pay with your ATM card, which is hosted on their own site as oppose to interswitch’s secure site. See below;

Warn everyone you know to stay off this site as giving them your card details could give them access to your bank account.

Please drop below any phishing sites you have come across, let’s spread the word!

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Surepay.com.ng: Nigeria’s online payment gateway

Easy online payment in Nigeria is one of the hindrances toward the growth of the market, as the internet market in Nigeria witness massive growth this year, surepay.com.ng has come to accelerate the growth. Primarily with the aim to help people buy something easily online and to help merchant sell their products seamlessly on the internet. In their own word “SurePay is a payment gateway that allows website owners and businesses to receive payments on their website from Interswitch, Etranzact, MasterCard and Visa (ATM) cardholders.” The platform is easy and helps websites owners accept payment both locally and internationally.

How it works

Website owners’ signs up for the service, integrate their API to the website, and start receiving payment. All payments made via this platform goes to the website owner’s account on the website which can later be transferred to specified bank account.

Buyers can use any of their cards to make payment on the site; Interswitch, etranzact, Mastercard and Visa. All these make it easier to buy something.

For developers, they are required go through training to be certified as “Certified SurePay Integrator (CSI)” to enable them integrate for any website willing to use the service. Read more on the official page…

Business Model

The business model adopted by this site is transaction broker as it helps sellers receive money from buyers. This model is needed in the Nigerian internet market; it will help accelerate the growth.

The New Deal

This site is a great innovation which arrived at the right time! Imagine websites willing to accept interswitch, they have to pay as much as N150,000 for that even though this service charges same amount as GTB web pay, it has so much more to offer.

• Easy payment for online transactions
• Single platform for multiple cards
• Catalogue applications and shipping processing applications

The Real Deal

• Verified website owners to help prevent fraudulent sites.
• Buy products and services from other SurePay merchants directly from the SurePay Cash Wallet at zero transaction charge
• Generate Rebates and Promo Codes for bonanzas and sales
• Auto-generated electronic invoice per transaction for buyers and business
• Mass mailer to all the merchant’s email contacts about their products
• View transaction history

Downside

• The site seem to have so many information yet to be filled, some links are not working.
• Also the cost is rather too expensive (N75, 000) for the small business it claims to want to help.
• Also why should developers go through certification training before they can ingrate the platform? Other bigger players around the globe don’t do this as it also reduces the adoption rate. A detailed how to should be developed instead of certification.
• Popularity of this site has not been felt in the industry, more publicity is needed.

Overall, this website is a great innovation and adoption will surely move the Nigerian internet market to more users and help businesses grow.

Nigerian internet market is on the move… what do you think about this site? (update) Remember to add “s” as in https://surepay.com.ng

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Cyber Crime:Nigerian Artistes to the rescue

It is no News that Cyber crime has affected Nigeria’s image a great deal over the years and as such the perception of Nigerians on the internet has been questionable in some quarters.

Microsoft a giant in software industry initiated a project called: Microsoft Internet Safety, Security and Privacy Initiative for Nigeria (MISSPIN). This project is aimed at shifting the focus of Nigerian youth from cyber crime to positive endeavour on the internet.

Cyber crime is widely called “Yahoo-yahoo” in Nigeria and youth are the culprits in this crime. Some people argued that because there is no positive thing for them to do that is why they resolved to “yahoo-yahoo” but you know, we can not continue to expect things to change until we take a step towards something better.

Project BLING

Another strategy/avenue to reach the youth by showcasing good things young Nigerians are doing and to let others model these Nigerians and follow suit. BLING simply means: Brilliant Legitimate Inspired Nigerian Great initiated by Ohimai Godwin Amaze (popularly called Mr. Fix Nigeria) under the coordination of Paradigm Initiative Nigeria (Founded by our profiled Influential Nigerian online).

Come in Top Artiste

Music is (one) the most influential media in Nigeria and through the medium some many have been influenced about “yahoo-yahoo”. To reverse the trend, top Nigerian Artiste have subscribed to help make it happen! A collaboration music is been produced by Cobhams Asukuo to feature: Banky W, Omawumi, Modele, Rooftop MCs, Bez and MI. These artistes are amongst the most influential Artiste in the country.I surely believe their influence will create what we expect: “Nigeria’s unofficial anthem in the electronic media and across the Internet“.

The music promotion started yesterday and should be out soon! Read other media mentions about the project here and here.

Show your support for the movement, let’s unleash the potential of the Nigerian youth by harnessing the strength, intelligence and the tenacity of the Nigerian spirit! I’m BLING!

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Fastecash: a Nigerian e-Payment platform

As the internet users’ grow by the day in Nigeria, one of the challenges of growing the ecommerce side of it has been largely online payment solution. Interswitch is the topmost of all with their ATM cards which is usable online and issued by all Nigerian banks. One of the bottlenecks of that is largely due to the startup cost which currently stands at 150,000 from interswitch and subsidized by 50% (75,000) by GTB. There has been low adoption rate in the country.

Come in fastecash.com; an online payment solution system with the vision to simplify online transaction is owned by TechClick Limited. It helps Internet marketers and suppliers to accept payment on Internet and provides a convenient way for customers to shop easily on Internet.

Established about 4 years ago, fastecash.com is very popular amongst Infopreneurs and internet marketers in Nigeria. Gbeminiyi Oluwabusola a top internet entrepreneur is the CEO of the firm.

A New Deal

(Innovative or copy cat? Let’s see!)

Looking at what they offer, I will say they have first of its kind products in Nigeria.

Visa Card: you can generate a virtual credit card with your account balance with them, giving you instant payment option on the spot. The service was rendered by foreign firms like graphcard.com and some other firms. The service got to its peak when online payment was a nightmare in Nigeria. But now, Nigerian banks now issue credit cards.

US Address: You can also use your account balance to rent a US address to process any deal you have online. Most people who are into affiliate programs find this product very useful.

Resellers: The firms have over 200 reseller agent across the country; making the service accessible to everyone.

Penny Recharges: The top-up for the accounts is as low as 20 naira. The recharge is structured like normal phone recharge card system, to recharge you have to buy pin codes with the recharge value.

The Real Deal

(These are some of the good side to this site, value expected.)

Online payment is the engine room for ecommerce and online business success. The site has been able to proffer solution to challenges of online payment to its customers over the years.

Down Side

The product, though a great one has not been able to cross to the mainstream internet users. It is largely used buy Infopreneurs, affiliate programs operators and other internet marketing people. These groups of its target audience are a handful of the internet users in Nigeria and as such it has not reached its potential.

The site also needs to work out modality with interswitch; integration with interswitch online payment will make adoption of this site grow. Finding resellers or going to make deposit to bank could be headache to customers.

Business Model

Transaction broker; it helps people fulfill deals across the internet.

This is a good product but I guess a refinement is needed to get to other internet operators who are yearning for a viable online payment system.

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e-commerce in Nigeria – The way forward

Looking at the Nigerian internet market, we see an emerging platform for growth and business development. Still, 10 million users is not too small for business to thrive but the result we see everywhere is less than 1% of Nigerian Websites offer online payment. That is to say 1 out every hundred Nigerian websites have online payment system.

Our banks e-payment system is dominated by the almighty Interswitch with etranzact making do with the crumbs. Every ATM card you see is powered by Interswitch and they currently operate with all the banks. The card which is internet, POS enable and ATM is majorly used for ATM and POS purchases despite its online capacity.

Online Payment

To get Interswitch payment system enabled on your website you will need to pay a whopping N150, 000 setup fee while etranzact on the other hand is N250, 000. This couple with various charges made on every purchase made on your website. 1.5% on every transaction below N133,333 and N2,000 flat on transaction above N133, 333.

If the setup cost is reduced to like N15, 000 I’m very sure the payment platform adoption will increase by 500%. Many startups need a payment system that will work in Nigeria environment but most don’t have N150, 000 to pay.

Also, it’s of high importance that we deal with the security bias of people towards online payment but I guess much education is needed in that area.

Business could be stimulated by easy payment system, most customers buy on impulses; sales will increase given easy means of payment. Well if there is an underwriting platform (supported by banks Like GTB’s idea) for website to have their setup fee spread over a period in installments that could also help.

If the payment is reduced to N15, 000 will you be willing to sign up immediate? What do you think?

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