From Cyriacus Nnaji, Lagos
Leading Fintech company in Nigeria, Moniepoint MFB, has restated its commitment to driving financial inclusion through innovative products that address payment challenges in the country.
The Head of Partnerships at Moniepoint Inc., Efemena Ogie, stated this at a Fintech Forum organized by the Nigeria Information Technology Reporters Association (NITRA) in Lagos. According to Ogie, it was in line with this commitment that the company developed an innovation of PoS alert for mobile transfers.
According to him, this is helping businesses using Moniepoint’s PoS machines to receive instant credit alerts when their customers make transfers to their accounts. He said this has also taken the customers’ burden of waiting for merchants to receive alerts before they can leave.
Explaining the innovation, Ogie said: “We had to think outside the box to make life easy when you want to make payments. If you go to a supermarket and you forget your card and you want to make a payment, you will have to make a transfer.
“But at some point, you have to wait until the merchant gets an alert before you can leave. You can just get angry at that point because your account has been debited. We saw that there is a better way to do that, so what we did was that instead of waiting, when you do a transfer, the alert should just hit the PoS, and that transaction will be seen as a card transaction and the merchant is able to print your receipt right there.”
Ogie added that more innovations are coming into the payment space in Nigeria, especially with the ongoing implementation of the Central Bank of Nigeria’s Payment System Vision 2025.
“In a couple of months from now, you’re going to see some massive innovation in the payment space because if you look at the CBN’s Payment System Vision 2025, in the documents, you have things like big data, artificial intelligence, contactless payments, and open banking.
“As we are talking, the CBN has also released the guidelines for open banking, so it’s not something that will happen in 10 years but it’s happening right now.
“The CBN has also released the circular for contactless payments. At Moniepoint, we are already working for our customers, we are already thinking outside the box to see how we can deploy services around these platforms,” Ogie said.
In his opening remarks at the Forum themed “Harnessing Nigeria’s Fintech Potentials: Challenges and Opportunities”, the Chairman of NITRA, Mr. Chike Onwuegbuchi noted that fintech has become the most exciting sector in the ICT industry, and in Nigeria as a whole.
“He added that the focus on the sector which is seen as the engine of financial dealings, economic growth, and transactional unification, was to present and aid various other sectors from the grassroots to international business/trade.
Bemigho Awala, PR Manager for MoniePoint Inc, used the forum to share perspectives around how opportunities in Nigeria’s fintech space can be robustly captured. He cited the need for increased talent development in the industry while signposting Moniepoint NITHub initiative as an exemplar.
“Awala also made the case for innovative systems, enhanced due diligence and innovative solutions that meet market demand as critical pillars that undergird the emergence of a fintech ecosystem that works for all stakeholders.
“Know Your Customer” (KYC) has become a cornerstone in establishing trust, ensuring security, and complying with regulatory standards. KYC is not merely an acronym; it represents a crucial set of processes designed to verify and authenticate the identity of customers engaging in financial transactions.
“As a responsible and compliant organization, we will continue to explore innovative tools and methodologies while actively collaborating and cooperating with all stakeholders in the financial services value chain to reduce the menace of fraud-related transactions”, Awala said.
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