Visa Partners Banks to Enhance Mobile Payments 

By Emma Okonji

Visa, a global payments solution provider, in collaboration with some Nigerian banks, has launched mVisa, its innovative mobile payment service, in Nigeria. The solution is currently being rolled out across Africa.

mVisa, which is a mobile payment platform, is targetted at giving Nigerian consumers an enhanced experience in mobile payment, irrespective of the mobile app and the bank that is providing the app. It will enable bank customers to enjoy easy and secure payments and merchants will also benefit from the innovative mobile QR technology that reduces cost and friction for accepting electronic payments.

Launched in Lagos last week, 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 transaction.

The banks that have already hooked on to the mVisa platform, include Diamond Bank, Fidelity Bank and First Bank. They are expected it will offer their customers the convenience of mVisa through their mobile banking apps. Access Bank, Ecobank, United Bank for Africa and Zenith Bank, have concluded deal with Visa to go live with mVisa in the coming weeks. Nigeria is the first market to provide customers the convenience of making cross-border payments using mVisa.

Speaking at the launch event, 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.” Torre said.

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,” Dozie said.

The Chief Information Officer (CIO), Fidelity Bank, Gbolahan Joshua, said: “mVisa is an innovative service that merges the everyday mobile phone to a payment solutions plan that is easy for our customers to use. Our account holders will appreciate the convenience mVisa offers.”

FirstBank’s Group Head, E-Business, Chuma Ezirim said the bank would continue to embrace innovation to deliver superior services in the best way possible to its customers.

”Partnering Visa to deliver mVisa is part of the FirstBank’s strategy to deliver reliable, secure and convenient payment options to its esteemed customers,” Ezirim said.

The mVisa implementation in Nigeria benefitted from the Visa Developer Platform, which allows all partner banks the ability to integrate the mVisa APIs directly into their mobile banking apps.

 

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