By Olabisi Olaleye [email protected] 08094000013, 08111813040

Cashless economy is no longer alien to Nigerians owing to the steady rate of adoption. Many now prefer to use their debit/credit cards to purchase goods online, point of sale (PoS) and the automated teller machine (ATM) during purchases.

Against this backdrop, Visa has launched mVisa, a mobile quick response (QR) technology that reduces cost and friction for accepting electronic payments wherever mVisa is accepted. Notably, mVisa transactions are processed via Visa’s global network, VisaNet, applying the same scale, security and reliability as any other Visa transaction.

Consumers from Visa’s Nigerian partner banks can pay with any mobile phone wherever mVisa is accepted. mVisa transactions are processed via Visa’s global network, VisaNet, applying the same scale, security and reliability as any other Visa transactions.

Almost all Nigerian banks would offer their customers the convenience of mVisa through their mobile banking apps and some of them would go live with mVisa in the coming weeks. Nigeria is the first market to provide the convenience of making cross-border payments using mVisa.

Speaking at the launch recently,  president for Visa sub-Saharan Africa, Andrew Torre, said, “Small and medium merchants in particular no longer have to invest in expensive point of sale infrastructure as mVisa gives them the freedom to accept payments in a convenient, secure and affordable manner that their customers trust.

“We are very excited to see more and more merchants come on board every day as they begin to understand the benefits that mVisa brings, including real-time notifications of payments and access to sales and transactions history. We have campaigns lined up for the coming months to support our merchants and encourage new customers to experience mVisa at various locations across Nigeria.

“Visa and its financial institution partners are, for the first time, providing the benefits of digital commerce to potentially everyone, everywhere across Nigeria and the African continent, bringing millions more people into the formal financial system.”

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Diamond Bank’s Group Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Uzoma Dozie, stated that the launch of mVisa was timely and aligned with the cashless policy of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the digital growth strategy of the bank.

‘’With mVisa, Diamond Bank has raised the bar for cashless banking in Nigeria by maintaining its leadership role in driving digital financial revolution in the country. Our customers will be able to make everyday payments simply by using their mobile phones. I think mVisa is the biggest thing that has happened in the industry.”

On his part, Fidelity Bank’s CIO, Gbolahan Joshua, described mVisa as “an innovative service that merges the everyday mobile phone to a payment solutions plan that is easy for customers to use.”

Similarly, First Bank’s group head, e-business, Chuma Ezirim, said that the bank would continue to embrace innovation to deliver superior service in the best way possible to its customers.

“Partnering with Visa to deliver mVisa is part of the First Bank’s strategy to deliver reliable, secure and convenient payment options to its esteemed customers,” he said

Torres disclosed that mVisa was already accepted at hundreds of locations across Nigeria, with many more merchants joining the system over the next few months. 

The mVisa implementation in Nigeria benefited from the Visa Developer Platform, which allowed all partner banks the ability to integrate the mVisa APIs directly into their mobile banking apps. While rolling out a new solution with a bank typically can take a very long time from development to implementation and testing, utilising the Visa Developer Platform interface reduced the time significantly. This helped to speed up the number of banks that have been able to roll out the mVisa solution in Nigeria. 

MVisa is now live in Nigeria, Kenya, India, Rwanda and Egypt, with plans to launch across other regions of Africa.