About 1.4 million Nigerian micro and small enterprises have moved their businesses online and accepted a range of digital payments from their customers, Mastercard has said. The company stated this in its Economics Institute’s global outlook report- Economy 2021- which provides detailed analysis of the economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, including permanent changes in digital consumer spending habits, growth of online banking, fintech disruption and opportunities to boost financial inclusion.
According to the report, “as e-commerce rapidly becomes a way to pandemicproof a business, adoption by older generations and added convenience and lower costs for consumers will contribute to the continued growth of digital demand in 2021. “In Nigeria, SME-in-a- Box, a new low-cost payments solution, enables small business owners to move their businesses online and accept a range of digital payments from their customers. Additionally, NetPlusDotCom and Innovectives have already onboarded 1.4 million Nigerian micro and small enterprises with digital payment tools such as Mastercard QR, USSD codes and contactless to advance their business… More details through: https://www.newtelegraphng.com/mastercard-1-4m-nigerian-small-enterprises-embrace-digital-payments/
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Aella App, Nigeria’s leading single-point financial service and payment solution provider, is working with Amazon Web Services, Inc. (AWS) to empower underbanked individuals through quick access to credit and other financial services using Amazon Rekognition for identity verification.
Amazon Rekognition is a fully managed computer vision service that enables developers to analyze images and videos for a variety of uses, including face identification and verification, media intelligence, custom industrial automation, and workplace safety. With the lack of application programming interface (API) infrastructure that allows the real-time verification of government identifications in Nigeria, Aella App is changing the fintech ecosystem by taking advantage of cutting-edge AI technologies and using biometric identity verification on its mobile application, improving the accuracy of facial verification by over 40 per cent… More details through: https://guardian.ng/business-services/amazon-web-service-to-rescue-unbanked-nigerians/ WorldRemit, a cross-border digital payments service, has launched a service for customers in Nigeria to receive international transfers in their bank accounts in USD ahead of the Christmas celebrations.
The firm in a statement noted that the initiative further demonstrates its ongoing commitment to offering customers easy and convenient ways to send and receive money following the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) new directive for remittances. “According to consumer research, 30 per cent of those who responded to a WorldRemit survey1 stated that they will not be travelling to visit family and friends due to pandemic-related travel concerns… More details through: https://www.newtelegraphng.com/worldremit-launches-usd-bank-transfers-to-nigeria/ Smart addressing startup OkHi is partnering with Interswitch, one of Africa’s largest financial technology & digital commerce companies, to launch in Nigeria. Together, the businesses are aiming to solve a painful problem for millions of Nigerians – the lack of addressing systems.
OkHi founder Timbo Drayson says the lack of addressing infrastructure negatively affects the entire economy. “Accurate addresses are vital for delivery and financial services, and the problem costs Nigeria an estimated $2billion a year in inefficiency. Delivery businesses often get lost and call their customers on average over three times to find their door. At the same time, banks have to send an agent, in-person, to verify a prospective customer addresses – a slow and expensive process.” OkHi’s solution is a smart address – a GPS pin linked to a person’s name and phone number. Their approach is to enable any business to collect an accurate address, deliver to it without getting lost and continuously verify it… More details through: https://thenationonlineng.net/okhi-partners-interswitch-launches-in-nigeria/ The e-commerce space in Nigeria is poised for more competition as two switching platforms in Nigeria, Interswitch and Unified Payment are in the process of completing the lauch of their online shops in a matter of months, BusinessDay can report. For Unified Payment, the e-commerce vertical is the next phase of its business expansion following…
More details through: https://businessday.ng/technology/article/nigerias-e-commerce-space-booms-as-interswitch-unified-payment-prepare-to-launch/ The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele, on Thursday, said the target of the CBN is for the country to attract about $2bn monthly as remittances from citizens in diaspora. Emefiele’s position is coming after the apex bank introduced its new Diaspora Foreign Exchange Remittances Policy.
The CBN boss told journalists during a press briefing on the new policy in Abuja that countries that had similar demographic features with Nigeria, such as Pakistan, often received about $2bn monthly from their citizens in diaspora. He said, “I’m aware from the data available that, for instance, Pakistan, even in the midst of COVID-19 receives $2bn monthly from flows from Pakistani in diaspora… More details through: https://punchng.com/cbn-expects-2bn-diaspora-remittances-monthly-says-emefiele/ Access Bank Plc is in talks about a potential acquisition of assets belonging to Bob Diamond’s Atlas Mara Ltd., as Nigeria’s biggest lender seeks to expand its reach in the rest of Africa, people familiar with the matter said.
Lagos-based Access Bank is interested in Atlas Mara’s businesses in Botswana, Zimbabwe and Zambia, the people said, asking not to be identified because the matter is private. Deliberations are in preliminary stages and no final decision has been made, they said. If successful, Atlas Mara will be left with its largest investment, a 49.97% stake in Union Bank of Nigeria Plc, which gives it a footprint in Africa’s largest economy… More details through: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-12-02/nigeria-s-biggest-bank-is-said-in-talks-to-buy-atlas-mara-assets WorldRemit, a global digital payments company, has announced the launch of its new zero percent pricing for international transfers to Nigeria. The new lowered price allows customers to send more to family and friends in Nigeria with absolutely no fees and FX margins. According to the digital firm in a statement, the major price drop forms part of a new pricing restructure and represents the largest pricing reduction in terms of the number of corridors for the business.
The new zero per cent pricing is in line with WorldRemit’s commitment to supporting remittance flows to Nigeria and helping the diaspora community to supplement and support family and friends back home. “The Economist reported in 2018, remittances to Nigeria totaled USD 24billion while the Nigerian Federation Account reported receipts from crude oil sales, tax and custom collections totalling approximately USD 10.8billion… More details through: https://www.newtelegraphng.com/worldremit-launches-price-drop-on-transfers-to-nigeria/ Interswitch, Africa’s leading technology driven company focused on the digitisation of payments in Africa, has announced its partnership with Finastra, one of the world’s largest fintechs, to deliver innovative, solutions for digital payments, corporate banking, treasury and trade finance, to financial institutions in Africa.
In a statement, Interswitch said that the partnership would enable it to deliver on its vision to transform Africa’s wholesale and transaction banking business by building world class products and solutions, thereby, delivering innovative and trusted technology to banks and the communities they serve… More details through: https://www.newtelegraphng.com/interswitch-finastra-consolidate-for-improved-services/ Despite the pandemic, the Financial Technology (Fintech) payment space in Nigeria grew by about 800 per cent. This was revealed by the Chief Executive Officer of Ecobank, Patrick Akinwuntan, during a panel session at the Fintech Nigeria: the State of Play, virtual conference.
Akinwuntan said the growth came directly from the Fintechs in collaboration with government agencies, indicating a huge trust in digital payment during the COVID-19 lock-downs, which prevented people from moving from one place to another… More details through: https://guardian.ng/business-services/fintech-space-grew-800-during-covid-19-as-cbn-lists-pandemic-lessons/ |
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