Ifedi, also explained the rationale behind the theme: “DevCon Alpha: Build with Verve, Lumia Edition”, and that the winning apps: App lawyer online, a platform that makes legal information available for users. and ‘ save a life app, for patients with life theatening illness intended to fast track electronic payment in the country. Excerpts:
Rationale behind this initiative
So far, e-payment in Nigeria has been with ATM and POS that the Central Bank pushed actively through the cashless policy, which started about two or three years ago. Online payment is more or less new in the country and we wanted to introduce mobile payment as well, not mobile money but payment, using instrument that you could use on an ATM, POS or whatever on a mobile phone as well, that is the motivation.
The approach we deployed in order to bring it to the market was that, we invited developers out there, so that we can create interest for them to develop applications on mobile platform.
Plans to monitor progress of developers
Since we started with window phones, we expect to grow from window to android and take it to other platforms. Now, part of the objective of the competition was that when someone won, the person also got a platform from Nokia and Microsoft to push their apps out there. And there was money to win from having the best app, there is also a marketing support from Microsoft and Nokia to push the app for people to adopt and to use it.
Why the partnership?
We went into a partnership with Microsoft and Nokia to create mobile payment applications that will enable payment inside of it. And the objective was to encourage apps developers, who didn’t know how to monetise it to basically put payment inside of those applications.
The objective is for them to build application and put payment inside of it. A lot of airline for example, has applications that you can use to book ticket. So, one of the objectives is also to ensure that payment is attached. The plan is to make it available on many kinds of forms but we started with a partnership with Microsoft and Nokia to create something at the beginning and that will run for the next few months of this year.
Why competition instead of open participation
It was both things at the same time. We wanted to introduce it to the developers community and make them excited about it, we could just announce and say this is now available or we could bring some excitement within the developers community as well as the home grown small business developers. We engaged the developers community and put forward the proposal and said this is the competition we want to do. We informed the people, who have apps and the people, who want to build new applications to come on board and connect to our payment infrastructure by building new applications.
Are you saying it was an open application for Verve?
There are two categories of people; one category already has an application but is faced with the challenge of cashing in on it via Nigerian card. Basically, we brought the payment instrument inside for them. The second category of people that we are addressing are people that have this idea since and said why do I need to build an application if I cannot monetise it? We felt, this is the platform that you can also build. When we started the competition, we gave it three to four months so that it was not just going to be for people that have apps already, but also for people who have idea to develop their own apps.
Response so far
We had about 50 submissions that were later streamlined to just a few before the winners emerge. For us, it is not just to build an app and abandon it but to build an app that can be submited to the app store. By submitting it to the store, means that an app must pass international standard in the first place. So, the development community was engaged and we had about 200 entries at the beginning. Therefore, getting 50 submissions in our view was a very good response.
Duration of competition
I can’t say whether it is one-off thing or we will continue with it. For us, it is an initiative we believe will transform the industry. As I said, this is for Microsoft and Nokia. However, it is possible that we can use another platform that I cannot decide for now.
Assessment of cashless scheme
I think cashless has had very significant positive for the country at large. I said that because a lot more people know about cashless now than two, three years ago when it started. The second thing is that, it also increases a lot of focus in deploying adequate infrastructure to make electronic payment successful and also introduced new businesses that didn’t exist before. I mean before cashless, we didn’t have konga, jumia or any significant ecommerce site. Again, before the cashless policy, we had about twenty thousand points of sales terminals but today we have over a hundred and seventy thousand points of sales terminals. Two, three years ago, it was not common to enter a mall and see a POS terminal but now, it’s common. Two, three years ago, Telcos did not invest sufficiently to transmit payment, but today, lots of them have invested in it. So, that means the industry has developed very significantly now, and there is still a significant room for growth.
Number of Verve cards in Nigeria
Today, we have over 18 million verve cards in the country. And we are still counting.
Is this Apps competition a CSR activity?
It is somehow a corporate social responsibility (CSR), because it is to encourage developers to make money and also offer employment.
Challenges in the course of competition
We started from the scratch and there was the need to introduce it to our target audience for the first time, at the very beginning. It took a lot of forums to present and to share with them how it take to do it. However, after a lot of back and front, they became more comfortable and development went smoother thereafter.
Impact this initiative will have on your brand
Beyond doing CSR, I believe, we are the first to do something like this in the market, and the first to demonstrate innovation, which is good enough for us. So, let’s look at it as trying to support tecnopreneurs.
How unified ATM card can access other banks ATM machine
Well, it is possible but the technology to deploy such high tech innovation is still not available here. But I can tell you that we have thought about it. Soon, something similar will come up in our kitty and we are holding it to our chest.
New additional ATM charges
I think this is a very good forum to bring such a question up because; first of all it is a decision by the Central Bank. Recently, the Central Bank issued a statement to clarify this issue, and what the Central Bank is saying is, the N100 charge was never removed, it was just transferred from the customer to the bank for the bank to pay. Now, the CBN felt that the success of cashless has been achieved and decided to transfer it to the customer. But look at what it has also done; it proposd that, if a customer makes three transactions in every month at another bank, that will be free and N65 will be charged on the fourth transaction every month.
Going forward, where do you see Verve and the market in the next few years?
I expect the market to grow in the next few years, though I don’t know by what percentage. But I am optimistic that Verve will remain the market leader even as electronic payment continues to evolve.
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Unified ATM card possible – Ifedi |
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