In the last five years, Nigeria has witnessed a phenomenal increase in the use of debit cards, which are popularly known as ATM or cash cards. Payments and other forms of transactions have been made easier and more convenient by the introduction of these instruments of payment in the Nigerian economy. As things stand today, over 4,000 ATMs dot different spots in the country and experts say the number of cards in circulation has grown significantly to over 15 million in just five years. These represent important landmarks in the gradual transition of the Nigerian economy towards card driven transactions, as opposed to cash. But the positive landmarks have been bogged down by problems relating to identity theft, scams and other fraudulent activities that have led to some losses of card users’ fund. Against the background of identity theft, many have continued to tow the risky path of carrying cash around for their transactions. Although there are no specific figures to show what has been lost to these criminal activities, watchers of the economy believe that the problem is precipitating negative results in the Nigerian economy. Beyond the loss of cardholder funds, identity theft is breeding a kind of distrust in the debit card system. These are the problems a group of solution providers from Nigeria, Australia and Hungary are seeking to address with their expertise. The solution providers believe the way out of the quagmire is in a product, the x-MoneyGuard, a money protection and customer service solution, which would enable banks to interactively alert their customers by SMS whenever there is a transaction involving the card with an option for immediate response. With this, the providers say fraudulent transactions would be noticed immediately in the case of the theft of a card, and the card would be subsequently blocked. In addition, for Card-Not-Present transactions like the use of cards on the Internet, a confirmation must be received from the cardholder before the transaction will be authorized. This automatically blocks any attempt by fraudsters who are poised to empty the cardholder’s account. At a forum on the introduction of the product recently, Mr. Abiodun Adesina, CEO of Tripplea Group, Inc., which has Infotechnology Solutions Nigeria Limited as one of its subsidiaries, was of the view that x-MoneyGuard would go a long way in helping banks to protect card users’ funds. In addition, the solution could be used for non-card bank transactions as interactive transaction alert with an option for customers’ response for immediate action. “ From statistics we have from all over the world, fraud has really assumed an alarming dimension. We are already seeing that in Nigeria; where somebody gains illegal access to another’s Personal Identification Number and goes on to empty the victim’s account”. Mr. Adesina asserts that the solution to these problems has come: “As part of our contribution to the economy, we have come up with x-MoneyGuard, as a proven and effective solution to these problems.”

Furthermore, he emphasized that apart from the fraud protection component of the product, it also helps banks and other financial institutions to do better customer relation and care. “This product is also going to give the banks and other financial institutions the opportunity to interactively relate with their clients, thereby winning their loyalty and allegiance”. On the phenomenal growth of debit cards in Nigeria, the CEO of Transec Pty Limited, one of Infotechnology Solutions Nigeria Limited’s partners from Australia, Mr. Gerard Vos, compared Nigeria to Hungary, which began to experience an increase in the use of debit cards in the late1990s. This coincided with growth in the Hungarian economy and the rise of mobile phone telephony there. Nigeria, he says is having a similar trend, with the economy growing and 43 million mobile telephone lines already in the system. Just like Nigeria too, fraud related activities threatened the use of debit cards until the introduction of MoneyGuard by F12, Ltd the technology partner of Infotechnology solutions Nigeria Limited. Mr. Braun, director of F12 Ltd described mobile phone as a veritable plank for fraud monitoring on which the use of the product lies, since it deploys interactive messaging to alert card holders on the occurrences of transactions real time. With this, a fraudulent transaction is noticed by the cardholder immediately allowing him to take action. The Police could be assisted in arresting the culprit with a link of the system to their offices. According to the Transec boss, the story from Hungary’s experience is that fraud levels relating to cards dropped from a hundred bases point to well less than one (0.22). Today, Hungary has one of the lowest fraud levels in the world. That is the experience that the trio of Infotechnology Solutions Nigeria Limited, Transec and F12, the owners of the technology, are seeking to re-enact in Nigeria and ensure that the debit card users’ money is well protected. Can the infrastructure in Nigeria support this kind of vision? Gerard thinks so, and he believes that the text messaging component of Nigeria’s telephony is capable of supporting the use of the product in Nigeria. “In Nigeria, you have over 15 million cards. These are predominantly used for cash transactions, and the exposure is very high. Since people have mobile phones, the use of phones to alert you, with an option to respond, whenever your card is being used would be very effective.”

So what makes the product different from other solutions like the alert system of some banks? Mr. Adesina explains, “What makes x-MoneyGuard different from other solutions is the fact that a lot of banks at the moment have an alert system which is just one way. They do not have an option for cardholders to respond interactively. You would discover that currently it takes an average of two weeks after a request is made before a card is blocked. But with x-MoneyGuard money protection and customer service, it takes less than one minute to block a card. A fraudulent person requires between an hour and three to empty an account because of multiple transactions required, except for card not present platforms.

The introduction of the product, it was surmised, would impact positively on the Nigerian economy in more than one way. These are projected to include a drastic reduction in fraud levels, the use of less cash and the plowing of funds saved from producing more physical currency into investments in infrastructure. Thus, a new dawn could be said to be in the horizon for debit card users in the country, since they would now be able to go to sleep without the fear of either being physically (cash) or virtually robbed.