Verve Launches 'Verve world' Mobile app

Verve International, the leading African payment card brand, has launched a revolutionary mobile app, ‘Verve World’, which enables cardholders to store all their payment options and to carry out everyday transactions without physically using their cards.

This innovation was unveiled to stakeholders at an event on Wednesday, 2nd December 2015 at the Four Points by Sheraton, Victoria Island, Lagos.

Users are able to store payment instruments from all major card brands in Nigeria. In addition to debit, credit and prepaid cards, and Verve eCash, bank accounts can also be added to the app.

The app features ‘Paycode’, Verve’s latest innovation. Users of the Verve World app can generate a ‘Verve Paycode’, a unique one-time code valid for 24 hours, which can be used to withdraw cash from an ATM machine without a card. The Verve Paycode can be sent to a loved one or friend to withdraw a pre-set amount of money from most ATMs in the country.

Verve Paycode is the latest in a string of initiatives and partnerships as Verve International continues to innovate and consolidate its leading position in payment transactions and services across Africa. The service opens a new range of possibilities for users and also offers a new level of security as cardholders can still carry out regular transactions as usual without the need to move around with a physical wallet.

Other services available on the Verve World app include: Verve eCash funding; quick recharge transactions; Verve Rewards balance check; and enabling or disabling cards from performing international transactions.

Speaking at a stakeholder engagement event held in Victoria Island, Lagos, Chief Executive Officer of Verve International, Charles Ifedi, commented:

“The Verve World app has been tailored specifically for the African market and is an example of how, here at Verve International, we continue to push the boundaries of technological innovation to address local payment challenges. We continue to see growing demand from our cardholders for easy, secure and convenient payment methods irrespective of the payment instrument being used. Therefore we designed the app to address the need for urgent access to cash without a card, through Verve Paycode, (a key feature in the APP) which can also be generated and sent to friends and family for cardless withdrawal at ATMs. Verve Paycode can also be generated via USSD channel, using any phone including feature phones, by simply dialing *322*8*amount#. We believe that the technology this app offers will revolutionize how we manage our money.”

Cardless transactions can be initiated at an ATM without inserting a card. This is done by pressing any button on ATMs enabled with ‘Quickteller Cardless’. Fidelity Bank, Stanbic IBTC Bank, Heritage Bank, Zenith bank, FCMB and GTBank have all upgraded their ATMs with this functionality.

ATMs belonging to UBA, Sterling Bank, Access Bank, Skye Bank, Unity Bank, Ecobank and WEMA Bank are being upgraded and would have the service available in a few weeks. As such, there are currently over 5,000 ATMs across Nigeria where Verve Paycode can be used, and this would rise to over 11,000 ATMs by the end of 2015, when the upgrades for the above listed banks would have been completed.

The service is also being extended to enable Banks’ Mobile Banking and Internet Banking, as well as Mobile Money Operators and other stakeholders to leverage Paycode at ATMs and POS terminals.

Launched in 2009, Verve is the biggest payment card brand in Nigeria and is rapidly expanding issuance and acceptance across the African continent. Verve is currently issued in five African countries: Nigeria, Ghana, Uganda, Kenya and Gambia and accepted in a further 19 countries. Verve is issued by 40 banks in Africa, with more than 30 million payment tokens in circulation.

For six years, Verve has been Africa’s payment card, helping Africans conduct millions of transactions safely, securely and without hassle everyday. As a truly home-grown African payment card, Verve has a system which is built and maintained by Africans to serve the African market and to connect it to retailers across the world. From its debut six years ago, Verve has grown to achieve the goal of connecting Africans to each other by enhancing intra-African trade and thus promoting strong and sustainable economic growth on the African continent.

SOURCE:VANGUARD NEWS