Globasure On The Pursuit To Cashless Nigeria Economy-The Journey so Far.

The MD/CEO of Globasure Technologies Limited, Mr. Chris Ife examines the cash-less policy which aimed at reducing the use of cash in the Nigeria’s economy,  titled “Globasure On The Pursuit To Cashless Nigeria Economy-The Journey so Far” .

The quick transition to a cashless economy in Nigeria, The Challenges and Strategies.  Mr. Chris outlined the following;

• CBN introduced a cashless policy  which is to enhance the Nigerian Payment system, reduce the use of cash in payments for goods/services and improve the use of Electronic Payment Systems.

• The specific advantages are to reduce the heavy burden of Cost of Cash Management, Security of money and people, Money Laundering, Transaction Losses due to Fraud and Counterfeit among others

• The policy attempts to place a tab on a daily cumulative cash lodgements & withdrawal from banks of N150,000 & N1m for individuals & corporate customers respectively .

• CBN recently reviewed upward the limit for free cash transactions for individuals to N500,000 from N150,000 and for corporate bodies to N3 million from N1 million

The policy took off in Lagos on 1st April,  2012 and is expected to begin nationwide in Jan 2013. Since its implementation, many issues have been raised and there have been efforts made to respond to them.

THE CASHLESS CHALLENGES

 Mr. Chris continued  further; Globally, cashless initiatives have traditionally failed to take root due to a number of concerns which includes: Charges, Reliability of platforms/networks, Dispute resolution, Awareness, Privacy concern, Credit History, Social infrastructure, Cost,  Identity Management, Shortage of the Right type of end devices, Fraud, Consumer literacy,  and Technological infrastructure.

On the parts of the stakeholders on the cashless Lagos scheme, Mr.Chris explain in details  some challenges which have been experienced by stakeholders, this includes:

• The estimated 80,000+ PoS terminals deployed in Lagos appear to be insufficient and unevenly spread

• Frequent instances of PoS terminals deployed but yet to be configured/ setup for use

• Difficulty in completing transactions due to frequent network downtime

• Low uptake of PoS operation by merchant staff for reasons such as cumbersome process, lengthy transaction completion time, previous experience of availability/ reliability issues, etc.

THE MOST SPECIFIC CHALLENGES 

However, according to the MD/CEO  Mr. Chris Ife, the most specific challenges beseeching the cashless Lagos generally also includes:

• No clarity on how the handling charges will be allocated as some stakeholders (e.g. merchants) feel that they are at a disadvantage in terms of bearing these costs.

• Complaints about the apparent lack of transparency in the way the settlements are carried out for POS transactions e.g. settlement  reports from NIBSS is reported to shows transactions net of charges, thereby causing reconciliation issues for merchants.

• Short Cash conversion cycle – Last mile consumer goods and beverage retailers/ traders would usually prefer to keep cash in-house to fund frequent replenishment of stock/ inventory/ inbound supplies.

• There  appears to be no clear and comprehensive electronic fraud management framework:

• There are no clearly defined standards for data and network security across electronic payment channels

• There is no clear delineation of responsibility for liability among key stakeholders in the event of a fraud event, etc

• Adoption of mobile money continues to be hindered by issues aground interoperability of mobile money services amongst other factors

• Lack of stability/ availability of mobile money platforms resulting in epileptic services

• Integration issues:

• across various service providers and mobile network operators has resulted in a lack of standardisation of USSD codes to facilitate on   boarding of customers between mobile money platforms and core banking systems in the case of bank-led models

THE SAFETY STRATEGIES.

To streamline this challenges the MD/CEO of Globasure Technologies Limited Mr. Chris Ife, capture the enthusiasms of all the participant, The MD’s/CEO of different companies presents, Telecommunication departments, Banks decision undertakers and CBN at large.

He said that the company Globasure Technologies Limited has come-up with great innovations to tackle the  challenges as stated earlier. In other to achieve this,  the company introduces,  Globasure agency banking  Solution(GABS) and Globasure SerVePoint.

The Globasure agency banking solution  (GABS) Agency Banking is a concept of expansion of banking branch services via agent acquiring network which enables expansions and the availability of banking services by using modern channels and devices, without major investments in infrastructure and manpower. Implementation of GABS technology enables financial institutions to involve agents to operate on their behalf, retailing full insight, control and accountability of its business. Agents become an extended arm of financial institutions that participate equally in the provision of services to end -users.

GABS is supported by the high level technology that outsources significant part of branch banking services, such as cash withdrawal, cash deposit, money transfer, balance enquiry etc.via different channels, such as ETF-POS terminals, electronic kiosks,  ATMs. Mobile and internet. it is suitable for the emerging countries with poor infrastructure where the cost of traditional branch establishment is high and very often not feasible.

GABS General Characteristics

End-to-end functionality and multi-institution support Parameterized and configurable rule-based approach that does not care about card and account types-particular for product management,operational risk management and transaction management Flexible and modular with Previous parameterized  modules to limit customization; Possibility to implements as stand-alone products and to upgrade according to further business requirement. 

Built-in workflow to reduce costs. real time position keeping,transaction management,reporting and exception handling; three-tier architecture, in which the presentation layer,business logic and data are separate and easy to change; A component system in which modules can be easily added or removed, SOA enabled and web-based interfaces. Library of adapters/XML interfaces for integration with third-party application(such as core banking)

The Globasure’s SerVepoint

The Globasure’s SerVepoint “The No. 1 Bill Payment Network System Solution”  is a leading provider of convenient payment systems and value added services to major consumer service organisations in the utility, housing, water, telecoms, media, financial services, transport, retail, e-commerce, gaming and public sectors.

ServePoint for Billers

 Hundreds of companies  already do businesses with servpoint and make it easier for their customers to pay for the services they render. Globasure’s innovative and industry-leading payments solutions serve everyone from energy, water and telecoms providers to transport e-commerce, parking and financial services businesses, along with many public sector organizations.

ServePoint for Customers

 Convenience is every thing-being able to pop into the nearest ServePoint location to pay your regular bills,load up your PHCN electricity meter, top up your mobile phone and make many other payments in cash or card. so we put all our effort into bringing more and more useful products together for you. so, you can pay for them all on the ServePoint terminal, easily and conveniently, when it suits you. Start paying with us and enjoy the numerous ServPoint Customer(SPC) benefits.

ServePoint  for retailers/Agents

 The ServePoint’s value added service products and payment technologies make a huge impacts on businesses. Many customers visit over 5,000 ServePoint outlets every week to make regular cash/card payments for bills, mobile phones top up, e-money load and purchase bus tickets. In addition to commission earned on ServePoint transactions, theyalso benefits from increased footfall and customer satisfaction.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Mr. Chris Ife, stated that,  some economies are much further along in the establishment of cashless alternatives, potential challenges still exist for the Nigerian banks and polity in this regard. The fragmented nature of the Nigerian industry could limit the speedy adoption of cashless alternatives in Nigeria. However, overall success will be hinged on timely execution of key imperatives. The key strategies to these  challenges is effective leverage of learnings from given Globasure the rightful playground  in managing and overcoming local challenges via their flexible platform systems.

Globasure stands firm in the leads in assuring the possibilities of Cashless Nigeria.