CBN Goes Cashless

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3 winners emerge @Visa, LSETF Cashless Lagos Hackathon - ITREALMS

ITREALMS:

World’s leader in digital payments, Visa, has announced three winners from the just concluded Cashless Lagos Hackathon in partnership with Lagos State Employment Trust Fund (LSETF), reports ITREALMS.

The finalists emerged after a three-day hacking boot camp hosted at the Vibranium Valley in Lagos. The winning solutions beat three other contenders to emerge as champions.

Blended won the grand prize of N2 million with its solution that allows merchants get validation of transactions via USSD with mobile phone numbers as User pass and authentication. Maverick took the second positon of N1million with a mobile-based solution that allows merchant pay in advance for services, schedule appointments, while also helping them keep track of their payment inventories.

The third prizewinner LagosPay developed a solution that collects payments electronically, by leveraging already existing payment channels, and incentivizing payments with rewards and points, clinching a N500,000 reward in the process. The grants will be used for the development of the solutions, courtesy of Visa.

Speaking at the event, Kemi Okusanya, General Manager, Visa West Africa, expressed Visa’s deep commitment in ensuring that merchants have access to innovative technologies to make and receive payments. Kemi said: “We constantly strive to reduce reliance on cash, and encourage the development of a digital payments ecosystem for both individuals and businesses. I am very impressed with the quality of solutions developed by these teams and look forward to seeing them adopted by businesses across Nigeria”.

Also speaking, Akintunde Oyebode, the Executive Secretary LSETF, said: “I am pleased with the winning teams and the possibility of using these solutions to solve payment issues experienced by small businesses. If we are able to help businesses optimize payments and grow, it will not only improve the State’s economy, but also create new jobs.

Lagos Innovates will continue to build platforms that develop homegrown technology solutions usable in Nigeria and beyond. I will like to thank our partner, Visa; and other implementation partners, Passion Incubator and Venture Garden Group. This hackathon further demonstrates how partnerships between Government and socially responsible companies can spur development and create double or triple bottom line impact.”

The hackathon hosted an array of Nigerian software developers, programmers, coders, data specialists and designers who developed technology-based financial solutions to allow MSMEs make and receive payments, make bulk purchases and keep transaction inventory.

Ayo Midele/GEE

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CBN’s Cashless Policy Timing is Right – Expert

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)’s cashless policy has been described as timely by an expert in the electronic transaction and payment industry.

Director of Payment Processing at Interswitch, Mr. Akeem Lawal said that the policy came at the right time thereby providing the proper environment for stakeholders to improve on the existing infrastructure and electronic payment expert in the country.

Also, he said, that the cash-less policy has significantly changed the infrastructure landscape nationwide.

He said in terms of infrastructure the Automated Teller Machine (ATM) remains the most popular, but what has grown is the infrastructure for mobile payment, Point-of-Sale (PoS), and internet payment as well as other forms of electronic transfers and transactions.

As said by him, these payment infrastructures have been largely accepted by Nigerians and the number of Nigerians embracing these alternative channels is growing steadily daily.

“What the cashless policy has done is enabled people to make the right investment, and it has created the right environment for people to consider these other now tested and trusted alternative payments,” he said.

Lawal recalls that Nigeria is predominantly cash based economy as almost all transactions run on cash and that has its inherent risks and inefficiencies.

According to him, there is a lot of wastage and inefficiencies in the system because of the huge amount of cash that is being used for transactions.

 
Therefore, Lawal noted some countries that have been able to reduce the amount of cash in circulation daily have witnessed immediate improvement in their economies because of the efficiencies they have introduced, which he said, “is the thrust of the CBN’s cashless.”

Remmy Nweke
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