Konga.com, Nigeria’s largest online mall has finalised its acquisition of Zinternet Nigeria Limited (Zinternet) in a fresh move to strengthen its payment capabilities.
The transaction was finalised upon consent from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) with Konga now owning 100 percent of Zinternet’s assets, including its mobile money license.
Responding to news of the acquisition, Sim Shagaya, chief executive officer, Konga, said, “We are excited to work with our banking partners to extend the reach of their services in driving the adoption of cashless payment solutions. As merchants ourselves,” he added.
Shagaya said that the online company is fully aware of the frictions involved in transaction processing, further adding that Konga is keen to explore banking partnership in an attempt to eliminate this impediment.
Konga hopes to play a major role in realising the Central Bank’s vision of driving Nigeria towards a cashless society.
Often named as one of Nigeria’s most innovative, indigenous companies, Konga plans to bring its high levels of innovation and energy to advancing the Nigerian financial services landscape.
The online business had earlier announced the successful development of a novel online payment solution, which is set to foster trust and safety for online shoppers in the country. Market observers have expressed optimism about the launch of the solution, with many of the view that electronic commerce ecosystem can only be successfully built on trust and safety.
According to them, these two components allow for a seamless exchange of goods, services and most importantly payments. The solution, dubbed ‘KongaPay’ is a payment solution that allows users to perform one-click payments on the Konga marketplace. Every time a customer triggers a transaction, the bank sends a secure authorisation code to the customer’s registered mobile number. Anyone with a bank account and a registered mobile phone number can use KongaPay. There is no need to sign up for internet banking. Given its stated motto of being an engine of commerce for Nigeria, Konga constantly seeks to facilitate trade and commerce.
In April 2014, the company opened up its platform to SMEs and enabled them to sell alongside Konga.
Today, Konga is home to over 15,000 small businesses that trade on the Konga.com domain. In November 2014, the company engaged the services of third-party logistics companies and spurred the creation of dozens of delivery franchises across the nation.
With the acquisition of this mobile money license, Konga is poised to offer payment solutions to merchants on and off the Konga.com platform.
Ben Uzor
