Stakeholders attribute growth in retail sector to payment innovation 

Stakeholders in the Nigerian payment industry have said that solutions that guarantee immediate value for customers and merchants alike will drive growth and expansion in the retail sector of the economy, in line with global trends. Merchants were also encouraged to be positive in their approach towards the adoption of innovative payment solutions.
 
These and many more were the points made by participants at the just-concluded 3rd quarter 2018 edition of PoS Innovation Summit held in Lagos, powered by Global Accelerex Limited, the innovation leader in payment technology in Nigeria, and the Committee of e-Business Industry Heads (CeBIH).
 
The summit with the theme: “Expanding Retail Merchants’ Possibilities”, focused on highlighting the various opportunities available to retail merchants for payment processing in light of the ingenious solutions being rolled-out almost on a daily basis.
 
Christabel Onyejekwe, keynote speaker and executive director, operations and technology, Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement Systems (NIBSS) Plc, revealed that growth trend for immediate value services exhibited a sharp growth trajectory from 2012 to 2017, indicating a clear market preference for services that offer immediate value to the beneficiary. She added that in 2017, PoS (point of sales) volumes were at 230 percent of the 2016 volumes, while NIP recorded 241 percent of the 2016 volumes.
 
Speaking at the event, Tunde Ogungbade, managing director of Global Accelerex, reinstated the commitment of the company to use the summit as a platform to harness collective knowledge and effort that can birth innovation for the retail payment sector and the development of the industry.
 
Stanley Jacob, chairman of CeBIH, commended Global Accelerex for the initiative and expressed the readiness of the Committee of e-Business Industry Heads to always collaborate with stakeholders in the industry to towards driving growth in the payment industry.
 
Tosin Eniolorunda, chief executive officer, TeamApt Limited, disclosed that opportunities to advance the retail business sector abound such as customer information systems, loyalty systems and embracement of emerging payment channels like fingerprint and voice.
In attendance at the summit were representatives of commercial and microfinance banks, Payment Terminal Service Providers (PTSPs), Regulators, Licensed Mobile Money Operators, merchants and other stakeholders in both the payment industry and retail business sector.
 
The representatives of Prince Ebeano Supermarket, Krispy Kreme and 5 Platters Restaurant, who formed the panel of discussion, commended service providers for their creative payment solutions that have already been deployed and have had tremendous positive impact on their businesses. They were however unanimous in their appeal for the industry to look into issues such as non-implementation of same day, real-time settlement, reconciliation issues and downtime on the terminal management system.
 
Jumoke Akiyode-Lawanson