The Group Managing Director/CEO of Unified Payment Services Limited (Unified Payments ®), Nigeria’s premier Payments & Financial Technology company, Dr. Agada Apochi, has urged industry players in the payment ecosystem to embrace different options or technologies that would serve the interests of young people.
Delivering a keynote presentation at the annual conference of the Committee of e-Business Industry Heads (CeBIH) themed “Payment System Vision 2030: Navigating Contemporary Issues in Driving Future Growth”, Dr. Apochi said it has become imperative for players to continue to innovate by creating products that align with the interests of digital natives. He added that delivering payment in its current state would not attract young people either now or in the distant future.
“We need to offer solutions that speak to the lifestyle and needs of the people that we serve. We need market players to understand the demography or community better, as this would be key to defining the future of payments in Nigeria. To serve the digital natives, we must connect with them where they are. Due to the digital habits that they have cultivated, it follows that we should create solutions that are delivered digitally,” he said.
Stating that with people between 24 years old and below constituting about 62% of the population, the industry must recognize the demography as it seeks to look to the future of Payments. He went further to state that the community the payment industry serves is gradually being dominated by digital natives, as opposed to digital aliens, who were in the majority years back. Hence, technologies must be optimised to cater to the demography.
While acknowledging that using cards will remain a permanent feature in Nigeria’s payment landscape, he charged players to develop solutions that see payments beyond plastic cards.
He disclosed that Unified Payments was already taking the lead in that direction by devising solutions that ensured that the equivalent of the card or POS was the telephone number and the telephone handset as an alternative to POS devices. It is also for the same reason that the name of the company was changed in 2012 from ValuCard to Unified Payments because the company envisioned a payments future that is beyond cards or plastics. He said that with most Nigerians now having means of digital identification through the BVN and NIN, it is easier for payments solutions to be delivered digitally.
Listing identity, the absence of a credit registry, and poor debt recovery as challenges militating against the growth of credit cards as a means of transaction in Nigeria, he noted that developing the right solution will define the future of payments and cards in Nigeria.
He called on industry operators to embrace cross-enterprise alliances and collaboration to enable the industry reach its full potential. In this regard, he said that Unified Payments will continue to serve as a shared infrastructure for other operators including competitors.
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