CoralPay Introduces First Interoperable USSD in Nigeria

CoralPay Technology Limited, a payment switching and transaction processing company, has deployed the first interoperable Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) and mobile payment platform to Nigerians desirous of a seamless and secure payment solution.

The solution, which fulfils the mantra of being Africa’s Gold Standard for payments, allows for enhanced interoperability amongst stakeholders in the payment ecosystem.The solution, according to the Chief Executive Officer, CoralPay, Chioma Nkechika, allows customers using the USSD short codes of their respective banks alongside their Mobile Apps to pay for goods and services directly from their bank accounts and wallets. The transactions are accepted on point-of-sale (POS) terminals, and Automated Teller Machine (ATMs), with receipts printed or on eCommerce sites with emails sent to registered addresses.

The C’Gate solution, which is already being adopted and deployed by leading Nigerian banks and Mobile Money Operators (MMOs), seamlessly enables USSD to POS, USSD to Web, USSD Fast Transfer transactions, USSD on App, USSD to ATM, and CiCo (USSD Cash-In and USSD Cash-Out) on POS. It offers customers more flexibilities and payment options than anything currently available in the Nigerian market.

Zenith Bank has led the adoption of the C’Gate solution as an addition to its e-payment offerings, with other banks like GTBank, UBA, Access Bank, FCMB, FirstBank, Fidelity Bank, Wema Bank, Keystone Bank, Sterling Bank, Providus Bank and others following suit at various levels of integration and deployment. POS transactions have grown significantly, with total transaction count up (YoY) from 63.7million to 146.3million transactions, with corresponding value rising from N758.9 billion to N1.4 trillion as at the December 2016 and December 2017, respectively. This excludes web payments, ATM operations and mobile money transfers, all of which are now seamlessly integrated with the C’Gate Platform.

CoralPay earlier in the year announced its entry into the Nigerian payment industry with a solution, in partnership with Alipay International, to ease online transactions for the Chinese, other Asian consumers and African merchants starting with Nigeria.

The partnership further expands Alipay’s footprint in Africa and opens the door for its more than 520 million active users in China, to make online payments via the CoralPay platform.Speaking on the agreement, the CEO of CoralPay assured Nigerians of the company’s ability and capacity to deliver on the African franchise, leveraging on their business network and partnerships.

On C’Gate, Nkechika said the solution was designed and developed locally, leveraging on the global experience and expertise of the company’s engineers, drawing on the declared mission to build ‘Africa’s Gold Standard’ for payment, encouraging financial institutions and SMEs grow capacity through financial inclusion and innovation. He further hinted that the C’Gate platform as deployed is the first of several breakthrough solutions the company has in its pipeline, adding that they are well-primed to bring more innovative services into the Nigerian market.

On the advantages of C’Gate, the CEO, said customers are now liberated from their cards and can now transact on POS, Web and ATM-like transaction without their payment cards, while confirmation is received via printed receipt at the point of interaction or email.

Customers can carry out these transactions remotely or while physically present with the merchant.With the inclusion of key billers and agency banking on the C’Gate platform, customers are also able to carry out bill payments and CiCo (cash-in/ cash-out) at agent locations. Additionally, he said the C’Gate ensures safer, faster and easier transactions for the customer, as card details are not required, and not dependent on Internet access. No new deployment costs are incurred as all transactions occur using the existing infrastructure of both customers and banks.

Source: Guardian