Unified Payments launches Payarena

APRIL 09,2014.

PRESS RELEASE.

Unified Payment Services Limited, the leading Payments Industry Service Provider announces the introduction of a new service platform, Payarena®.

Payarena offers customers access to Value Added Services which include purchase of Airtime (Virtual Top Up, Prepaid PINs, Blackberry subscriptions, Data bundle plans etc.) for all Telcos in Nigeria; payment of bills to major service providers such as PHCN, DSTV, GOTV, Swift Networks etc. It also offers payment collections platform for public institutions for collections of taxes, levies; corporate organizations and religious institutions for collection of tithes and offerings etc. Payarena is also poised to offer funds transfer services in a manner that has not been offered in the industry.

The platform accepts multiple card schemes such as Visa, MasterCard, UnionPay and carefully designed to accommodate all other local and international card or payment options including contactless payment solution. It is accessible on multiple channels including Web via www.payarena.com, over 40,000 Point of Sale (POS) terminals and ATMs all over the country.

“For the very first time, Visa, MasterCard and UnionPay cardholders can now enjoy Value added services on a single platform” said Babatunde Okeniyi, Director, Marketing and Sales for Unified Payments.

To access the service on the web, a cardholder visits www.payarena.com. Payarena is also available on the Point of Sale (POS) terminal and on the ATM.

“With Payarena, holders of different card brands and various other payment options are now well taken care of with regards to value-added services that come with electronic payments even as this brings a further boost to the cashless economy policy driven by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)” Said Okeniyi.

Unified Payment Services Limited otherwise known as Unified Payments is a card-neutral and option-neutral Payments Service Provider founded in 1997 by a consortium of leading Nigerian banks.      Unified Payments prides itself in Leadership & Innovations in Payments being the first Nigerian organisation to (i) be licensed as Principal Member of a global payment scheme (ii) Acquire EMV transactions (iii) be certified as EMV 3PP Processor; and (iv) acquire and process transactions based on Near-Field-Communication (NFC) technology.

Unified Payments® operates as a shared infrastructure for the banking community in Nigeria and Payments Service Provider within and outside Nigeria, with a mission to be the most preferred e-payment service provider in Africa. Formerly known as ValuCard Nigeria Limited, the name of the Company was changed in 2012 to reflect its new business, following a successful transformation from a domestic card scheme to a provider of payment services supporting different payment options and schemes.

The major businesses of Unified Payments include (i) Processing (ii) Switching (iii) Acquiring (iii) Payment Terminal Service Provider (PTSP); and (v) Value-Added Services and Solutions.