|
FIRSTBANK,
SERVICE PROVIDERS DISCUSS STRATEGY TO BOOST E-BANKING
First Bank of Nigeria Plc
has engaged Independent Service Organisations (ISOs) and Point of
Sale (POS) Merchants in finding a solution to the slow growth of
electronic payments system in the country.
Speaking at a
luncheon organized by FirstBank for ISOs and POS Merchants at the
Muson Centre, Lagos recently, the Executive Director, Retail
Banking (Lagos & West), Mr. Remi Babalola stressed that the Bank was
committed to pioneering and leading the non-traditional service
delivery and payment channel and enjoined the service providers to
partner with the Bank to create awareness for e-payment products.
According to
Babalola, FirstBank’s desire to revolutionise the payments system in
the country has motivated it to pioneer various e-banking
initiatives such as the InterSwitch Consortium, ATMC, Mobile Banking
Consortium, MasterCard POS and Debit Card POS.
He observed that
e-banking has a lot of yet to be tapped potential, adding that POS
terminals have developed at a much slower rate.
The challenge facing
the Bank, ISOs and POS Merchants, according to him, is how to get
Nigerians to de-emphasise the culture of making cash payments and
embrace transactions with electronic cards through POS terminals,
adding that FirstBank was ready to partner with ISOs and POS
Merchants to develop the e-banking market.
In his own remarks
at the event, Mr. Kayode Ayeni, Managing Director of First Funds
Nigeria Ltd, a subsidiary of FirstBank said his company was willing
to partner with the merchants to create wealth, adding that it was
willing to give facilities to ISOs at single digit rates.
According to Ayeni,
First Funds is committed to providing equity funding to interested
ISOs with an upper limit of 40 per cent, adding that its doors are
open to work out modalities with interested ISOs.
Responding,
representatives of ISOs at the event commended FirstBank for
providing a platform to brainstorm on how to grow e-banking business
to move the country towards a cashless society.
However, they identified the dismal level of
awareness of e-payment solutions as the major impediment to the
growth of business in the country and, therefore, commended the
FirstBank initiative, describing it as timely.
The ISOs expressed
willingness to partner with FirstBank and other banks to create
awareness, adding that POS usage will multiply with better awareness
and this will ensure the survival of ISOs, who will be better
positioned to borrow from banks.
Back to Top
|
