VoguePay an indigenous online payment platform said that over 100million dollars worth of transactions pass through the platform on a monthly basis owing to its robust online security system.
The online platform which was launched in 2012 aims to enable small businesses send and receive money frequently to aid their business dealings across the world.
According to Leke Ojikutu, Head, Digital Media Strategies Online; fraud has a tendency to affect everyone who makes or accepts payments online. This is because it is easier to steal anonymously and tracking down someone over the internet and prosecuting them is difficult and almost impossible.
He noted that one of the key steps to eliminating online fraud is to be able to recognise it before a card is charged.
Before the launch of VoguePay in 2012, Ojikutu; a renowned software architect, had developed software for Federal and State government parastatals/agencies including deployment of the first Tax database of the Lagos State Internal Revenue Commission.
According to Ojikutu, identity theft is a vice of fraud that online payment platforms need to reduce to its barest minimum. This, he said is where “VoguePay plays a crucial role to its users as every merchant is unique and has a unique sales history and e-behaviour that the system recognises and uses to prevent fraud from being carried out on his account.”
He mentioned that reports from institutions like Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) and DataGroupIT is helpful in helping to quantify the impact of financial losses due to online fraud, with NDIC reporting over N25.61 billion was lost to fraud in 2014 and DataGroupIT’s recent white paper indicated a more severe impact of N78b/$391m lost to online fraud in Nigeria each year.
These losses are attributable to astronomical increase in the incidences of payment fraud conducted through various channels which include stolen credit cards, compromised online accounts, web- and browser-based malware, system breaches, social engineering, malware and SQL injection and so on designed to sabotage the account holders of their funds.
Michael Femi Simeon, Chief Executive Officer VoguePay said the platform has evolved with several anti-fraud protocols and intelligent approaches to eliminate possibility of fraud and/or stop it before it succeeds.
Simeon highlighted that; “some of the measures include data storage and transmission on strong encryption technology, safe user authentication procedures at login and secure session handling. We combine several principles to authenticate the author of a transaction as being rightfully authorised to carry out such transactions.”
He explained that “VoguePay is championing stronger cross-continent collaboration between payment processors, card issuers and security agencies in reporting and investigating incidents and apprehending perpetrators, this is because in order to facilitate safe online transactions, the decision on who can transact cannot be left to chances.”
VoguePay is also a member of the electronic payment providers of Nigeria (E-PPAN), a non-governmental organisation that provides advocacy on safe electronic payment transactions in Nigeria.
JUMOKE AKIYODE
