The major problem is ascertaining that the purchase is made solely by the owner of the card. But with a mobile payment solution, all that is solved as 99% of the time transactions would be generated and concluded solely by the card owner.

Is there any solution provider that you can think of?

Maybe we should reinvent the wheel instead of learning from the mistakes others make and leap frog them we are content with starting afresh. Thats why our whole system as a country is the way it is.
Interswitch can add an additional line of security such as the token system that makes it impossible for someone without it to actually make payment on a card account online. But my guess is that they have made so much money that they can’t be bothered about what anyone says.

Come to think of it, if not greed why charge almost $1,000 for an API?

7 days to go till the end of Q4 2010 – we are waiting for this rival to eBay, Amazon, PayPal et al.

Biko, make we see ya nigerianised link here soon o.

Straight to my point, I am part of a team that have designed an online marketplace that is customised for the Nigerian and African market, and comfortably rival the likes of ebay, amazon etc. as well as an e-payment solution that takes into consideration all the inherent flaws in the current e-commerce entities, that can comfortably rival the likes of paypal, moneybookers et al. We presently trying to get our patents other legal issues sortedm and also get investors.

To be candid, the failure of most e-commerce ventures in Nigeria, that is characteristic of most business ventures and enterprenuers, is the lack of detailed feasibility study and understanding of the market. In fact, players in the e-commerce industry believe they can just replicate innovations that had proven successful in US and other developed countries here in Nigeria. This is what the Nigerian government had done over the years with “imported policies” and the result still speaks for itself till date. In as much as innovations, business solutions, policies, etc, are not tailored to meet the unique characteristics and realities of the target market, failure will continue to be the only result.

I believe, most e-commerce ventures will not only be operationally succesful, but also profitable if they are expertly “NIGERIANISED”. People just need to keep thinking and be more analytic. we don’t need to be geniuses to do this. Nigerians needs to start thinking of solutions from within.

We are set to step up preparation into the launching of the online marketplace and the epayment solution in the last quarter of 2010. We hope to put an end to Nigerian’s frustrationtion by providing quality e-commerce solutions and services that are tailored to meet the needs of the Nigerian teeming Nigerian population.

Simply put, m-commerce is the ability to make payments for proudcts using your mobile phone. Currently in active deployment in about 25 Western countries at the moment, it will be integrated as a means of attracting people who do not feel comfortable with paying with thier cards online and offers several options for persons who use either pay-as-you-go packages or even contract lines.

In other words, if you needed to pay for a book online, all you had to do was to load the value of the cost of the book on your mobile phone (if you use pay-as-you-go) which you will get in your local currency (at the going exchange rate) and send a text to a desgnated number. You will recieve a text with a code and enter that code on the website where you are making a purchase. That effectively completes your transaction and eliminates or reduces the ability to carry out fraud.

It is a novel idea which will no doubt change how e-commerce is done in Nigeria. You can take your time to fill out this survey with regards to e-commerce in Nigeria http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=CwDKTRblmf4F8A5e8VxseA_3d_3d

Cheers

Not all the systems are in place yet to allow cross-referencing and address checks nationwide as there isn’t a fully functioning credit-rating system yet. Once this happens and is in place look for these restrictions to begin to ease. For now the best way for people to get stuff on-line consist mainly of getting their friends and relatives in diaspora purchase the goods or services online on their behalf.

I think we’ll get there in the end; it’s just so frustrating to have to get through these issues as an entrepreneur.