A New Dawn for Debit
Card Users
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.
|
