This new development makes InterSwitch the only transaction-switching network to have 100 per cent of Nigerian banks connected to it and the only Nigerian e-payment company to have real-time online connections to all the 24 banks in Nigeria. The banks on Interswitch’s network are: First Bank, United Bank of Africa, Zenith Bank, GTBank, Oceanic Bank, Skye Bank, IBTC Chartered Bank, Afribank, Wema Bank, Bank PHB, FCMB and Diamond Bank. Others include Union Bank, Access Bank, Intercontinental Bank, ETB, Ecobank, Fidelity Bank, Citi Bank, First Inland Bank, Sterling Bank, Spring Bank, Unity Bank and Standard Chartered Bank.

The paper reports that over 21 million debit cards have been issued by member banks, and over 4,100 ATMs, and 7,500 POS terminals deployed nationwide, as at February 2008.

Other competing payment transaction networks in Nigeria include ValuCard, Etranzact.

The event which would be hosted by Instinct Media publishers of Mobile World magazine, aims to provide stakeholders with insight into opportunities in mobile advertising and marketing in Africa, as well as strategies to tap into them, says Instinct Media’s group executive publisher, Akin Naphtal.

With the huge growth of mobile communications in Africa, this event will be bringing together advertisers, communication agencies, content developers, and mobile service providers.

Learn powerful campaign strategies and techniques straight from the foremost international and local experts that will help your brand connect with the continent’s over 200 million mobile phone users.

I’d be live at the event venue in Lagos Nigeria. This might just be your long awaited opportunity to meet Oluniyi David Ajao in person. See you there!

Visit www.mobileafrica.net/events.php for more information about this event.

I have also considered e-gold quite risky and too hot to handle especially because of their random account blocking despite the fact that I have used e-gold exclusively for about 5 years now.

Liberty Reserve seems to be the best alternative to e-gold. I signed-up for Liberty Reserve recently. It has many good qualities: located outside the USA, backed in part by gold, dual currency (US Dollars and Euro), aesthetically-pleasing website, timely customer-friendly support system, very secure login system etc. The biggest weakness I have seen so far with Liberty Reserve is their consistent downtime. Apparently, they’re been constantly hit by DDOS attacks by criminals who don’t want them to survive. As I type this, Liberty Reserve has been offline for 3 straight days now. The following is the latest post on their blog:

Unscheduled Outage

Dear members!

Out site is currently subjected to a massive ddos attack. We are taking measures to rectify the situation and will be back as soon as we are ready. We apologize for any inconvenience during this unplanned outage.

All best.

Now, how do I trust Liberty Reserve with deposits if I can’t access my account when it matters most?

I know about the other digital gold currencies like e-bullion, c-gold, Crowne Gold, e-dinar, GoldMoney, and Pecunix but I don’t think any of them is viable enough to deserve my patronage. This brings me back to the question: Are Digital Gold Currencies still viable?

Share your thoughts by posting your comments here and now.

Zenith Bank Plc has taken its drive for cashless transactions to new levels with the launch of dual currency VISA credit card capable of being used for both Dollar and Naira transactions.

This dual currency functionality allows transactions carried out by the cardholder to be denominated in Dollars while abroad and transactions performed at home reported in Naira.

Cardholders who want Visa now have more options.

Among other benefits to the customers, the VISA credit card which comes in three variants: classic, gold and platinum eliminates the challenge of currency conversion for local transactions because of its dual currency nature even as it offers users an enhanced secure payment channel through the use of the ‘EMV’ or pin and chip technology, the latest and safest card technology in the world.

Zenith Bank Visa Prepaid
The Zenith Bank Visa Prepaid card offers you the recognition of a globally accepted payment card with the convenience of a prepaid card. For just $20 a year, the Visa prepaid is the solution to most of your global payment needs. Simply pay at any Zenith Bank Branch and a Visa Prepaid card will be issued in your name with a limit of your choice. Alternatively, you can pick up a Zenith Vuxz non-personalized prepaid card.
The cards are reloadable and would work on the Internet as well as on Visa Point-of-sales terminals.

Zenith Bank Visa Credit Card
The Zenith Bank Visa Credit Card is a dual currency international credit card issued on Visa International platform accepted at more than 24 million shops and business locations in over 220 countries and at more than 900,000 ATM machines worldwide including Nigeria.
These come in 3 different ‘flavours’: Classic, Gold, Platinum and come with varying monthly and annual fees. They all allow card-to-card transfers, email statements and transaction notifications.

Other banks and ATMs

Access Bank, another leading bank, has been issuing Visa cards since last year and many of their ATMs are linked to the Visa network. Some 12 other banks in Nigeria have Visa accreditation but are yet to start issuing Visa cards though some ATMs of First Bank, Skye Bank and UBA are linked to the Visa network.

The United Kingdom is listed second in a report on global cyber-crime statistics, behind the United States and ahead of cyber-crime “hotspots” Nigeria and Romania. The 2007 Internet Crime Report was released in April by the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), a joint operation between the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the National White Collar Crime Center.

It is interesting to note that 3 sub-Saharan African countries are listed among the top ten perpetrators with Nigeria taking the lead.

The 2007 Internet Crime Report cites the top ten countries by amount of perpetrators of online crime. In descending order, the top ten list includes the United States, the United Kingdom, Nigeria, Canada, Romania, Italy, Spain, South Africa, Russia, and Ghana…

The full 2007 IC3 Annual Report is available here. [PDF]

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Doesn’t seem like I coined that word afterall. I just googled it and got 1,450 results! Oops… So my name doesn’t get into history books on this matter. Sad huh?

The subject of my blogspiration this dawn is the low level of local tourism in Nigeria. To the best of my knowledge, most Nigerians don’t bother with exploring their country just for the fun of it. Travel in Nigeria is risky enough, travelling for the fun of it is out for most. Also, most people are busy trying to make a living. Having made barely enough to survive, many do not have enough to spare for tourism.

Nigeria does not lack tourist destinations. Far from it. Nigeria has abundant natural, man-made tourist destinations and events - too several to be listed here but these places are hardly ever visited due to the reasons I have listed above. Places like Olumo Rock in Abeokuta, Ikogosi Warm Springs in Ikogosi-Ekiti, Idanre Hills in Idanre, Obudu Cattle Ranch close to Calabar, Yankari Game Reserve, Gashaka Gumti National Park in Adamawa and Taraba states etc

I am guilty too.

I always feel jealous when I see western tourists here in Accra, who are here to explore and enjoy the natural scenery of Ghana’s hinderlands, game reserves, historical monuments and the likes. Many Europeans drive to Ghana by road in a bid to experience more of Africa, first-hand. Some even come on bicycles! They painstakingly go through the bad roads just to enjoy the rich scenery and wild life Africa has to offer.

Having been in Ghana for years, I find it shameful to state that I am yet to visit Kakum National Park, Mole Park, and the likes that I have heard/read about so many times. I hope to make amends this year and in years to come. I’d however highlight explorations by a couple of fellow Nigerian bloggers:

Jeremy Weate of Naijablog who along with other tourists climbed the highest mountain in Nigeria and even ventured into parts of Cameroon on foot, blogged about “The Mountain of Death: no be small o!” I would only reproduce the concluding part:

Gashaka Gumti National Park really is a national treasure for Nigeria. Whether you want to exhaust yourself climbing the highest mountain in Nigeria as we did, or simply want to visit the base station of the Primate Project and go on an easy monkey/primate safari, you will experience a serene and tranquil side to Nigeria many will never even know about. It is something like the Eden of West Africa, untroubled by tourists, and a universe away from the bustle of Lagos and the cynicism of Abuja. You are guaranteed to have an experience of a lifetime if you go there.

Yomi Adegboye of Yomi Says was At Olumo Rock again with his family:

I am posting this from the top of Olumo Rock in Abeokuta, Ogun state, south-western Nigeria. It’s my second time here. The first was last year when my wife and I came alone. This time, we are here with the kids.

See also:

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tourism_in_Nigeria
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_national_parks_in_Africa#Nigeria
• http://www.nigeriatourism.net/
• http://www.onlinenigeria.com/travel/index.asp

Have you had any experience of exploring Nigeria for the fun of it? Share your experiences here by leaving your comments.

No kidding. GoldKobo has closed shop! From their website: www.goldkobo.com

PUBLIC NOTICE

April 3, 2008: GoldKOBO is placed under Receivership.

1. Effective immediately, Goldkobo Services Ltd will stop offering e-gold exchange services.
2. Since we officially started offering e-gold exchange services in 2005 to our now over 10,000 Nigerian customers we have had to contend with several challenging fraud schemes by the same customers we work hard everyday to serve. At all such times we have had to cover the losses from company funds because e-gold operating agreement prohibits them from giving out account holder’s information without a US Court order when we requested assistance.
3. As at March 31, 2008 we had our operating e-gold account frozen. While we await explanations from e-gold regarding the reason for this action, this situation has technically put us out of business. We have therefore appointed a Receiver in the process of winding up of the company in accordance with the COMPANIES AND ALLIED MATTERS ACT (CAMA) of The Federal Republic of Nigeria.
4. The public is hereby notified to direct every enquiry, forward any claims and or obligations regarding Goldkobo Services Ltd to the Receiver:

Attn: Barrister Williams Agugo O.

Agugo Chambers

#27 Old Aba Road, Rumuogba

Port Harcourt, Rivers State

Nigeria.

Email: agugooluchukwu@yahoo.com

Thank you for your kind attention to this notice.

Management

Goldkobo Services Ltd

From their “About Us” page:

About GoldKOBO
GoldKOBO Services Ltd is a Nigerian privately held company engaged in digital gold exchange. GoldKOBO is an Accredited Gold Interchange Operator (AGIO) in the e-gold system.

GoldKOBO is focused on the Nigerian market. This means our customers can fund their digital gold accounts using the Nigerian national currency , the Naira, and also withdraw their digital gold account values into Naira.

I will deal with e-gold’s account blocking spree at a later time.

What Google has for Ghana so far is just a basic page. Nothing that enables you to search “pages from Ghana” nor Google’s search engine in Ghanaian languages. I can only hope these would be implemented later since most other Google country pages come with them.

I upgraded my blog via Fantastico without any problems.

The control panel of this great blogging platform now looks much better and the menu options are now arranged in a more sensible manner. CSS at work. The new look is a bit confusing since it is very different from WordPress 2.3.3 Makes me wonder why this new version was simply not called WordPress 3.

I am unable to list all the new features but the bottomline is that much work has gone into making WordPress the number one blog software. The full list of the new features is here.

There are several forms of ecurrencies. There are digital gold currencies like e-gold, e-bullion, pecunix, c-gold, Liberty Reserve, GoldMoney etc. There are also many others not backed by gold, that are usually referring to as ewallets. Popular ones include: PayPal, Moneybookers, Alertpay etc.

PayPal: This is the number one choice for most, in making payment online. And why not?
Currently, PayPal operates in 190 markets, and it manages over 164 million accounts. PayPal allows customers to send, receive, and hold funds in 17 currencies worldwide. These currencies are the U.S. dollar, Canadian dollar, Australian dollar, Euro, Pound sterling, Japanese yen, Chinese renminbi, Czech Koruna, Danish krone, Hong Kong dollar, Hungarian forint, New Zealand dollar, Norwegian krone, Polish zloty, Singapore dollar, Swedish krona, and Swiss franc. PayPal operates locally in 14 countries. My point is, there is no other internet payment system with a wider global reach than PayPal.

Some merits of getting paid via Paypal:

• global reach
• multiple currencies
• accepted by several merchants online
• multiple withdrawal methods: bank account, visa cards, Paypal debit cards (US only), cheque.
• receive money for free: some companies have special arrangements with Paypal that allows them to send payment to their members for free irrespective of whether the recipient’s Paypal account is Business, Premier or Personal.
• high security: this is quite controversial but I consider Paypal very secure. Your money is safe with Paypal as they have several measures that trigger red-flags whenever fraud is suspected.

Some downsides of Paypal:

• all African countries on Paypal cannot receive money but can only send. Some countries outside Africa are also in the Send Only category.
• Countries like Ghana, Egypt and Nigeria are excluded from Paypal entirely. If you’re in any of these countries, its safer to stay away from PayPal.
• No interests. In case you choose to leave your money in your Paypal account, you earn no interest on it unlike a typical savings account with your bank. An exception though is PayPal Money Market Fund for USA Paypal account holders who choose to opt-in.

Websites that pay via Paypal:
Paypal frowns at HYIPs and MLMs. Despite that, it would be practically impossible to list all the web-based companies that pay via Paypal. However, I have listed a few below.

• Publisher Ad networks: ValueClickMedia (formerly FastClick), Text-Link-Ads, ShoppingAds, Bidvertiser, Yahoo! Publisher Network (currently open to US residents only), Chikita eMalls, WidgetBucks, AdMob, etc. Minimal payouts vary from $10 to $50.
• Forex trading: Many forex platforms allow Paypal deposits, but not PayPal withdrawals. The following allow PayPal withdrawals: OANDA FxTrade, GCI Financial.
• Professional services: Are you a blogger? Web/Graphics Designer? Web Applications Programmer? Translator? Whatever you do, there are several websites like Elance.com, Maclance.com, Guru.com offer PayPal payouts.

The next blog post on this issue would discuss other online payment options. In the meantime, feel free to share your thoughts about Paypal.

Jonathan Gbemuotor is with Tade Ogidan and you can expect the best of camera works whenever Jonathan Gbemuotor is behind the camera.

Synopsis: True life story about a notorious criminal who terrorised the city of Benin and the high profile mission to apprehend him.

I heard about the escapades of the likes of Anini and Shina Rambo who were both notorious armed robbers in the late 1980s. I am thus assuming that this movie titled Anini is based on a real-life story.

The movie set in 1986 when the military still ruled Nigeria, starts with Anini in the hospital with an amputated leg, telling the story of his life, of how he turned out to be a deadly armed robber. As a young boy who left his village for Benin city in search of a brighter future, he joins a mechanic workshop as an apprentice, learning to fix automobiles. He soon learns through another apprentice, how to steal car spare parts and sell to a certain unscrupulous spare parts dealer. For the fine details, grab a copy of Anini.

Eventually, he becomes a hardened, much feared armed robber on rampage who goes about shooting police men. The important thing for me about the movie is that it highlights the entrenched corruption in the Nigeria Police. In a scene, Anini is seen lamenting that men of the Nigeria Police give them tips about where to rob, hire weapons to them for use in robbery, come back to arrest them for robbery, and then harass them to part with bribes so they could walk free. What an irony.

The movie also brings to fore, the failure of the past Nigerian governments to adequately cater for the citizenry. Corruption in government is one thing that has brought Nigeria to its knees today and just about every problem in Nigeria today can be traced back to corruption in high and low places: erratic power supply, poor security, poor roads, poor air safety records, poor telecom facilities, etc.

Well, Anini is a movie worth watching - if you can get a copy.

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Cheque: Good old paper cheque. This is the worst way of getting paid online even if you live in the same country as the company behind the website you’re dealing with. First there are currency issues, then postage, and then deposit into your bank account.

If you an affiliate, chances are your parent MLM company is US-based and they issue cheques denominated in US Dollars. If you’re based outside the western world, hard-luck. First, you need to wait for a few weeks for your cheque to be prepared and mailed out. Regular mailing is probably free, but the cheque could take between 1 and 3 weeks to get to you or might never get to you at all because it can get stolen or “lost-in-transit”. Sending via services like DHL, UPS or Fedex could attract an additional fee of about $30 but you’d get the cheque in about a week.

So you got the cheque? Now what? You need to deposit it into your bank account. Your local bank would usually require that you have a US dollar denominated account to be able to deposit such cheques and you need to wait for between 3 and 6 weeks for the cheque to clear! What your bank actually does is to send the cheque back to the USA and clear it through their corresponding bank. This takes time.

Now wait for the worst part: your bank will charge you a fee, for clearing the cheque. Depending on your country, this could be anywhere between $15 and $50! (I’ve had a bank charge me $50 to clear a cheque with a face value of $75 here in Ghana before).

Way out?
A way out of this is to open a US checking account (that’s what current accounts are called in the US & Canada) but then the cheque has to come to you first for endorsement and then you need to mail it back to the USA. Your US bank is not likely to charge you any fee for clearing the cheque. The major hurdle is how to open the US bank account. Since 9/11 terrorist attack, the USA Patriot Act requires that all financial institutions obtain, verify and keep the identity information of any individual or organization that opens a new US bank account.

Opening a US Bank Account
Now, most of the banks require the Social Security Number (SSN) of account applicants, as well as Passport, state ID or driver’s license. The SSN angle makes it virtually impossible for a non-US resident but a few banks accommodate none-US residents, through very stringent means.

In my opinion, paper cheques should be scrapped as a means of making payments less than $1,000 for all the reasons I have stated above. There are other means of receiving payments online. I’d deal with these in the 2nd part of this post.

Al Jazeera English is available via satellite, mobile devices and affiliate TV stations around the world. See Al Jazeera English world coverage.

You can watch both channels if you’re subscribed to Multichoice’s DSTV in Africa.

Several leading banks in Nigeria have since followed the steps of Ecobank, issuing international Mastercard and/or Visa card products.These banks include: UBA Plc, Zenith Bank Plc, Guaranty Trust Bank Plc, First Bank of Nigeria, Access Bank Plc, Intercontinental Bank Plc.

There are several problems with these cards however:

1. Acquisition: Obtaining a credit card from any responsible financial institution should necessarily be rigorous but not to the extent of discouraging the customer. Expect a Nigerian bank to ask for several documents since there is no national database of Nigerian residents that can be used to verify the identity and credit-worthiness of a potential customer. Photo IDs, reference letters, utility bills, bank statements, pay slips (for salary earners), company registration documents (for corporate customers) are among the documents the banks will ask for. Fair enough, a know-your-customer policy needs to be implemented in strict terms to guard against money laundering or any other financial crimes but the sad truth is that not every genuine customer can provide all the necessary documents. Thus, a federal database with every resident easily traceable using an ID number would have reduced the red-tapes.

2. Acceptability: This for me, is the most important issue here. Theoretically, Mastercard/Visa cards issued in Nigeria are acceptable anywhere in the world where there are internationally-linked Mastercard/Visa ATMs, POS terminals or websites powered by payment processors that accept international cards. However, this is not always the case. The terrible reputation Nigeria has on the Internet in terms of fraudulent financial transactions, has seen to it that the word “Nigeria” draws red-flags. To be on the safe side, many internet merchants decline transactions involving a credit/debit card issued in Nigeria [yours truly included], and a Nigerian billing or shipping address. There are also reports of some ATMs in the UK rejecting rejecting cards issued by Nigerian financial institutions - I am unable to verify these claims independently. All these have virtually made such cards mere objects of decoration for the wallets of their holders. Of what use is a card that will be rejected on the Internet?

3. Convenience: To obtain a Mastercard from many of the banks in Nigeria, you need a domiciliary account (essentially a foreign currency account denominated in US Dollars, British Pounds or Euro). The card is not directly linked to the domiciliary account and you would still need to transfer funds to the card to make payments online. This extra hurdle is not necessary in my view and only creates an extra inconvenience.

4. Fees:  The best example to illustrate this point is to look at the entry fees for the FirstBank Mastercard. The card has a minimum credit limit of $500 and a maximum limit of $10,000 - limits are in multiples of $500, the card is secured by a 125% cash collateral! and the customer must provide a minimum deposit of $625 to obtain the card, amongst other requirements. Source: First Bank of Nigeria website. Many of the banks also charge their customers varying monthly/annual fees.

Many of the cards issued in Nigeria are inadvertently labelled secured credit cards or prepaid credit cards whereas the best description for such cards would have been: debit cards. Most of the card products in Nigeria are backed by cash! There are real credit cards though. I know Ecobank and Access Bank issue real credit cards that are not backed by cash but these are only feasible for traceable salary-earners or high net worth business owners.

There is no better way to conclude this blog post than to reproduce the reply of Propre on Nairaland: Re: To Get Legitimate Credit Cards in Nigeria « #3 on: September 27, 2005, 09:19 AM »

Obtaining a credit card in Nigeria is one thing, being able to use the card on the internet is another – for a credit card merchant to accept your card as a form of payment and deliver your goods/services as ordered requires trust; the knowledge or peace of mind that the transaction wouldn’t be charged back.

Nigeria has lost credibility, a browse on eBay will show that Nigerians in Nigeria are specifically being excluded from bidding for fear of fraud, 90% of online merchant wouldn’t sell to Nigerians with a Nigeria address or shipped to Nigeria.

It is nice and a good thing that credit card are now being issued in Nigeria; this is a welcome development, however a lot need to be done by the card issuers in Nigeria and the government in PR to try and redeem Nigeria image domestically and in the international arena before credit card issued in Nigeria on a Nigerian address can be widely accepted by online merchant.

What are your thoughts on this issue? Do you hold a card issued by a Nigerian bank? Have you experienced any problems with using it? Share your opinion by posting your comment.

That was how MyJoyOnline.com introduced a news item that announced the sad death of a Ghanaian woman whose deportation from the UK last year had brought so much controversy about the United Kingdom’s immigration laws and the application of those laws. What is important here in my opinion is not to blame the government of the UK, but lay the blame squarely at the doorsteps of most African governments who have failed woefully in providing quality healthcare services for the general populace.

These politicians before getting into government, promise heaven on earth only to do very little when in power, or nothing at all. Its always the same at the end of the day - when they or any of their close relatives/associates are ill, are promptly flown to the UK, Germany, South Africa or any other country with a developed health infrastructure. The poor in the society are thus left at the mercy of under-paid health workers and poorly-equipped health facilities. Little wonder there are many dying from malaria, and other easily-treated diseases in this part of the world.

Who can deny that they knew Ama Sumani was coming to Ghana to die? The facilities that could have prolonged her life are either unavailable or too expensive. Quoting BBC News:

But the drug she needed to prolong her life - thalidomide - is not available in Ghana.

For how long will this vicious circle continue? The people deserve better healthcare facilities and this is possible if only the governments would get their priorities right. Much as I admit that the treatment by the British government was not the best, the abysmal failure of the government her home country is shameful - in my opinion. May her soul rest in peace.

What are your thoughts? Did the UK government take the right decision by deporting a terminally-ill Ama Sumani? Who is to blame? The UK government? The government of Ghana? Post your comments.

I visited the website. The design theme is quite similar to that of Senator Barack Obama’s official campaign website but one could see Nigeria’s flag displayed beside Nigeria for Obama at the lower right corner of the website’s homepage. Other things on the website included the names of the honourable members of the Lagos State House of Assembly who had come together to register an organization (Obama Nigeria Initiative) to publicly push their support of Obama as President of the United States of America. What’s more annoying? Donation were being solicited from Nigerians and souvenirs being offered. Had it not been that I could confirm that this was official, I would have classified ObamaNigeria.org as a classic scam. Why the donations?

To add insult to injury, it appears the Assembly members are using public funds to oil the machinery of their “Obama Nigeria Initiative”. How? What official business of Lagos State House of Assembly is it, as to who wins the US presidency? Can you imagine a State in the USA officially declaring support for any Nigerian individual or party to win Nigeria’s Presidency?

Let’s give them the right of reply. From the Nigeria for Obama’08 webpage:

FELLOW PATRIOTS,
Though without a voting right in the ongoing party primaries of the Democrats in the USA, like everybody around the world, we are very much involved because of the global implications the outcome of the elections would have on the world.

We are particularly thrilled by the feat of Barack Obama because for the very first time in the history of the USA, he has successfully broken the colour bar. We are even more thrilled that white voters rally forcefully behind this charismatic black man in his quest to become the first black president in the most powerful nation on earth. Like Mr. Martins King Jr. said, today he is no longer being judged by the color of his skin but by the content of his character which has propelled him from near obscurity to international limelight. In Barack Obama, the agitations of early black nationalists such as Booker T. Washington, W.E.B. Du Bois, Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, Marcus Garvey and so many others found concrete expressions as he attains leverage in the political calculation of the USA that would no longer ignore Afro-Americans and their electoral strength. To us, this is a feat worthy of celebration as the dawn of a new era. FELLOW PATRIOTS,
Though without a voting right in the ongoing party primaries of the Democrats in the USA, like everybody around the world, we are very much involved because of the global implications the outcome of the elections would have on the world.

We are particularly thrilled by the feat of Barack Obama because for the very first time in the history of the USA, he has successfully broken the colour bar. We are even more thrilled that white voters rally forcefully behind this charismatic black man in his quest to become the first black president in the most powerful nation on earth. Like Mr. Martins King Jr. said, today he is no longer being judged by the color of his skin but by the content of his character which has propelled him from near obscurity to international limelight. In Barack Obama, the agitations of early black nationalists such as Booker T. Washington, W.E.B. Du Bois, Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, Marcus Garvey and so many others found concrete expressions as he attains leverage in the political calculation of the USA that would no longer ignore Afro-Americans and their electoral strength. To us, this is a feat worthy of celebration as the dawn of a new era.

Okay, Barack Obama should be celebrated but why not wait for the man to win the US Presidency before popping the champagne?

I’d wrap this up with my2cents’ comment on the Nairaland thread:

…At the taxpayer’s expense? If this were some project by a private individual, I would say, no problem. But from the looks of things, this is sponsored by the state. How many millions do you think has gone into this project (from the coder, to all the kick-backs)? Considering there are bigger issues facing Lagos (roads, security, electricity, water, etc), as Afam has said, this is a misplaced priority.

Support Obama? Yes. At taxpayer expense? No.

What are your thoughts on this issue? Post your comment here and now!

Rates:

• Ghana - 1.2 Ghana cedi per US Dollar (Liberty Reserve is 1.25 GH Cedi per USD)
• Nigeria - 145 Naira per US Dollar

My terms:

• Minimum of $50 per transaction
• You would deposit Ghana cedi or Nigerian Naira into a corporate bank account in Ghana or Nigeria.
• You would receive the e-gold/alertpay/libertyreserve when your payment has been verified.
• Your e-currency will be delivered same day, ceteris paribus.
• Serious buyers only. Don’t bother calling if you don’t agree to the terms above.

Contact information

• Send an SMS to +233 24 4937935 requesting for the bank account details when you’re ready or fill the contact form on this web page.

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President George Bush marrying new wives? I didn’t say that. Did I?

Photos courtesy of The White House website.

Just a few days ago, I discovered ReloadNG.com and attempted to buy some MTN airtime from the website for a friend in Nigeria. I signed-up and attempted to pay using my GTB-issued Interswitch card but got an error: Card restricted. I was terribly confused since I was very sure I had entered the right PIN. After a couple of other attempts, I gave up. It crossed my mind that Interswitch had restricted my card because I was using it online from Ghana (I now know they’re not that sophisticated anyway) but I can confirm this is not the case.

How did I confirm? I used the QuickTeller facility available via Interswitch’s website and I could access my bank account balance as well as the last few transactions. Bottomline, my card is active and my PIN is not wrong.

I got the clue to whats going on through Nairaland this morning:

Due to the high rate of debit card frauds in Nigeria, some banks have started blocking the online feature of ATM cards. So this restricts the use of these cards to ATM machines only.

What now happens to folk that spent 150k to incorporate Interswitch to their websites? I guess most of these Nigerian Banks did not really do their homework properly before introducing these online innovations here in Nigeria.

We are back to the days of endless queues at the banks, even to make paltry payments for services.

To think that just yesterday I was calling on Interswitch to lower their fees?

I always knew that the whole security behind many Internet Banking platforms and debit card systems in Nigeria was very weak. To make payment via the Internet using an Interswitch card, only the card number, PIN and probably the expiry date are authorized in real time. Billing address, card holder’s name and telephone number, are not checked. Thus, just about anyone who has the basic card information can spend it online using any name, address and telephone number. A merchant is therefore unable to verify that the buyer is really the card owner. This security lapse makes Interswitch cardholders ripe candidates for phishing emails.

Online fraud is neither new nor exclusive to Nigeria. We need to find working solutions to minimize online fraud. The Interswitch system needs to be thoroughly revamped. The system must necessarily come with advanced security features. Turning-off the system entirely will only move us back to the stone ages of queueing in the banking halls and ultimately make doing business online from Nigeria very difficult.

Are you a resident of Nigeria and a user of any of the discussed services? What are your thoughts?

The free midnight calls basically enable subscribers to make network calls for free or in some cases, for a very low tariff, or ‘little’ connection fee. This enables subscribers to catch-up on conversations they missed during the day. However, the problems caused by free midnight calls seem to far out-weigh any advantages they offer. Why? The cellular networks are terribly congested during the late hours when subscribers are busy on the phone. Due to the high number of people conversing at that particular time, making an emergency call becomes very difficult if not outrightly impossible. In the case of emergencies, one is then left in a limbo since calls to the security services from a mobile phone might not go through at all. Life and property are thus at risk during this hours.

Aside the security problem, the users who do not get adequate rest are often times worn-out the next day and might even suffer severe headache, fatigue and/or body pain when they stay awake for too long. This makes me wonder, are these free midnight calls really worth it?

I don’t indulge in midnight calls and calls to my phone after 10 pm will unanswered as the phone’s ringing would have been silenced, calls diverted to voicemail or the phone switched-off entirely.

What are your thoughts about midnight calls? How do you deal with it? Why would you support it? Share your thoughts here and now.

InterSwitch Limited is an electronic transaction switching and payment processing company with a business footprint that covers the provision of shared, integrated message broker solutions for financial transactions, e-commerce, telecoms value-added services and e-billing in the Nigerian environment.

Most of the local debit/ATM cards issued in Nigeria are linked to the InterSwitch network about 9 million cards. 23 out of the 25 banks in Nigeria linked to the InterSwitch network and issue InterSwitch-backed cards as well. One can thus understand the huge potential for any web merchant that accepts payment from InterSwitch cards, via the Internet. Nigeria has an official population of about 140 million and this shows that there is a big possibility that the number of InterSwitch cards will increase even further.

The product from InterSwitch that enables web merchants to accept payment online in real-time from InterSwitch cardholders is known as WebPay.

WebPAY is a secure internet payment gateway developed by InterSwitch to facilitate payments on the internet (across various banks) using debit cards issued by banks on the network. Currently only the Nigeria Debit Card and CashCard are supported. WebPAY provides the simplest and quickest method of integrating e-commerce websites to the InterSwitch payment platform.

WebPAY plugs-in seamlessly with existing websites and acts as abridge between a merchant’s website and financial institutions (banks) that process payment transactions.

Now, this is the problem: A merchant needs to cough out a whopping sum of N150,000 (about $1,250) to get the WebPay API for his/her website. Aside that, InterSwitch makes 1.5% on every transaction that passes through WebPay. In my opinion, no justification for the high entry fees. To the best of my knowledge, it is the only thing that has kept most web merchants away from InterSwitch. Simple economic principle: Lower your entry fees, have more merchants on your network, make more money from the transaction fees.

The closest competition to InterSwitch is Etranzact. Their entry fees is only marginally lower: about $1,050. Perhaps we need Visa and Mastercard to knock this folks to size.

Are you a web merchant in Nigeria? What are your thoughts?

A very big one is the possibility of Nigerian and Ghanaian eTranzact cardholders to withdraw cash from any ATM in Nigeria and Ghana and have their accounts debited accordingly. This service is designed for all categories of people who travel between Nigeria and Ghana. Stakeholders agree that eTranzact’s partnership with Intercontinental Bank to bring this idea to fruition is a great feat.

I figure the cards will work on Intercontinental Bank Ghana’s ATMs. I am aware that Zenith Bank Ghana and UBA Ghana and a few other Ghanaian institutions are also linked to the Etranzact Ghana’s network, but I am not sure if Nigerian-issued Etranzact cards will work on these as well.

This is not the first time an electronic payment network is linking Ghana and Nigeria. I had used an international VISA Debit/ATM card issued by Ecobank Ghana on some of Access Bank’s VISA-enabled ATMs in Lagos last year. Many banks in Nigeria issue Mastercard credit/debit cards and I am sure these would work on the few Mastercard ATMs in Ghana as well.

All these should go a long way to make moving money between ECOWAS countries safer, faster and cheaper. This would ultimately boost regional trade.

5 PayPal alternatives
Sick of PayPal? Check out these e-commerce solutions for business owners.

The article then goes on to suggest DigitalRiver, 2Checkout, Alertpay, TrialPay and e-Junkie.
Interestingly, I had blogged about some other Paypal alternatives in the past whilst I was commenting about e-commerce in Africa. Read it and share your thoughts as well.

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As early as November 2007, I had been following the media to track information about when Ghana 2008 tickets would be on sale. All I got was, tickets were not yet available and would be on sale at Ghana Post offices, Agricultural Development Bank (ADB) branches. Exactly a week to the opening ceremony, I watched the Chairman of the Ghana 2008 Local Organizing Committee (LOC), Dr. Kofi Amoah in a LIVE interview on a special edition of Kwaku One on One on TV3 still saying tickets were almost ready. During the week before the opening match, I watched TV3 News presenters admit that they had not even caught a glimpse of one of the match tickets.

Same week, I went to the Ghana Post office at Circle. The notice was there: Ghana 2008 tickets on sale but when I enquired, I was told tickets for the opening match were sold-out. I asked about the tickets for the matches in Sekondi (where Nigeria would be playing) and was told I had to go to Sekondi/Takoradi for those.

On the day Nigeria was playing its first match which was against Cote d’Ivoire, I travelled about 200 km to Takoradi to buy a ticket for myself and then watch it at the Sekondi stadium. On my way, I was listening to Joy FM’s Super Morning show and learnt that tickets where on sale at Radio Max in Takoradi. I smiled at my fortune. Getting to Radio Max, I was told the tickets available where brought-in by some entrepreneur. Bottomline? I had to part with more money if I really wanted one.

• North/South Stand tickets whose real value were GHC 4 were available for GHC 20!
• East Stand tickets whose real value were GHC 15 were available for GHC40!

Of course I was desperate. I couldn’t have travelled 200 km only not to enter the stadium. Could I? So I asked for the East Stand tickets and after waiting for about 10 minutes, I was eventually told they were sold-out. Phew! Meanwhile, the same radio station had a promo live on air offering free tickets to folks who could answer simple questions about Radio Max. I don’t live in Takoradi and couldn’t have answered the questions.

I quickly asked the taxi driver to take me to the nearest ADB branch. There I was told tickets were sold-out 2 weeks ago! Hard luck? I wasn’t about to give up so I quickly asked to be taken to the main Ghana Post office in Takoradi. Same story. Tickets are sold-out but the gentleman I spoke with said I could still get one if I was willing to part for more money. After so much waiting and haggling I eventually got an East Stand ticket for GHC 45.

After the terrible experience with getting a ticket and difficulty with getting back to Accra that night, I decided it wasn’t worth going through all that again to watch the other matches involving the Super Eagles of Nigeria. What made matters worse is that the Super Eagles were performing way below expectation so I felt it wasn’t worth the stress.

This evening, the Super Eagles having qualified, by some stroke of luck, for the Quarter Finals of the tournament, will be meeting the host country Ghana at the Ohene Djan stadium here in Accra. Same old story. The tickets are simply no where to be found. If don’t believe me, watch the video below:

So I ask again? Where Are The Tickets???

The abysmal performance cuts across the spectrum of the various Internet connectivity solution providers in Nigeria:-

GSM networks:
All the four GSM networks offer Internet access solutions using GPRS, EDGE and/or 3G (3.5G?). Already their voice networks almost always underperform and so their Internet services are nothing to write home about - either the speed is terribly slow or too expensive or a horrible combination of both! The GSM networks are busy trying to out-do each other with adverts and promos, instead of concentrating on their core areas - quality service delivery and ultimately customer satisfaction.

CDMA networks:
The question about which is worse (Internet access quality between GSM and CDMA networks) would to a large extent depend on whom you ask. Either way, it is obvious that none of the CDMA networks stands tall. Else, why are there so many complaints from users on public discussion forums and blogs on the Internet? How come the name Starcomms is associated with billing problems and poor customer service?

Want to read more?

• Broadband in our dreams (from Yomi Says, a blog)
• No Internet After A Month Of Paying (Starcomms) (from Nairaland, a discussion forum)
  

Share your thoughts by posting your comments here and now.

I am not entirely surprised or moved by this news. After all, this is not the first time Microsoft has offered to buy out Yahoo but the owners of Yahoo had always turned down the overtures. The essence of this blog post however, is to highlight some of the possible changes that would take place if indeed this take-over bid becomes a reality any time soon. Some of the points are mine, others from blogs and news websites.

A little perspective here though. No question - a merger of Microsoft and Yahoo would be huge indeed. The world’s biggest software company merging with the world’s leading web portal. Also, there is no hiding that a merger of the two would bring forth a new company that can compete with Google effectively in terms of ad revenue and search offerings.

Free Services
Analysts expect the combined companies to preserve many of their separate free services, like instant-messaging and e-mail programs. It wouldn’t exactly be a smart idea to merge Yahoo! Mail and Windows Live Mail (Hotmail); would it? Or merge Yahoo! Messenger platform with that of Windows Live Messenger? Well, that might be feasible/possible - in a long term.

Portals merge (?)
According to reports, Yahoo’s portal and web properties are still making profit while those of Microsoft’s MSN are recording losses. With this, MSN portal is likely to merge into Yahoo more especially because the MSN portal records less traffic than Yahoo and Google.

Web meets Desktop
Now, this is significant. Microsoft’s operating system  Windows is the world’s number one. Over the years, Microsoft has been trying to integrate more of the Internet into its operating system: RSS feeds, search, desktop background, etc. A merger with Yahoo will bring about a better and more effective way to combine the web with your desktop computer with Yahoo bringing its vast web content to your desktop. Look forward to having Internet data such as stock prices, sports scores, local traffic and weather are automatically baked into your PC. Forget about your traditional homepage as you have it today. The widgets on your PC (you know this if you’re using Vista already) will pay a more central role in delivering web content directly to you.

Mobile
Windows Mobile devices would of course integrate more web content and social networking  software just like the points listed for desktops above.

Web office suite
Yahoo’s popularity will be used to improve the stakes of Microsoft’s web office suite. Already, Google Apps has eaten deep into that terrain. A Yahoo branding might just help to bring  Microsoft’s web version of its office suite application software straight to millions of users globally - for a fee of course. Yahoo! Apps somebody?

Decentralized advert hotspots
The web is no longer centralized around web portals. Content is now getting more user-driven - thanks to the army of bloggers around the world as well as the thousands of social networking websites. Advertisers want to reach this millions of web users through these blogs and social networking sites. What better way to do that than through schemes like Google Adsense? Google has got it right already, but Yahoo! Publisher is still in beta and still limited to a US audience. This proposed merger would give the new company more muscles to offer something much better that can effectively compete with Google Adsense (for publishers) and Google Adwords (for advertisers).

One angle I cannot really figure is what happens to Yahoo’s open-source software culture as opposed to Microsoft’s proprietorship.

Do you have any thoughts I have not listed above? Or a better perspective? Do not hesitate: your comments are most welcome.

What is E-Zwich? E-Zwich is the brand name for the National Switch, under the new Universal Electronic Payments (UEPS) technology which would ensure that all commercial banks, rural banks and savings and loans institutions in Ghana implemented a common payment platform and biometric Smartcard.

To make this technology really feasible, the Bank of Ghana [BOG] (Ghana’s central bank) has issued a directive that all banks linked their ATMs & Point of Sale (POS) terminals to the National Switch, the E-ZWICH by March 31, 2008. Banks with existing switches are expected to upgrade them to make them compatible with the National Switch by July 1, 2008 while banks without switches/ATMs / POS terminals are expected to integrate their payment terminals directly into the National Switch or through a E-ZWICH compatible switch.

The advantages of this new national payment platform are enormous.  A customer using a credit/debit/ATM card issued by a rural bank, can access cash from just about any ATM in any city or town in Ghana, and use it to effect payment for goods and services at stores equipped with POS terminals. A city dweller will also be able to access funds via ATMs in the deepest parts of Ghana (where ATMs exist).

Hitherto, other payment platforms existed in Ghana, with VISA being the leading payment platform/ATM network.

VISA
Barclays Bank, CAL Bank, Ecobank, SG-SSB, Stanbic Bank and Standard Chartered Bank (4 out of the 6 listed are leading banks in Ghana) all have their ATMs hooked to the international VISA platform respectively, as well as issue VISA cards. As of today, customers of any of these banks can use the ATMs of any of the other banks.

Etranzact
This payment platform currently links only UBA Ghana Limited and Zenith Bank Ghana. I am aware that UBA has Etranzact POS terminals in their main branch but I am not very sure if all their ATMs/cards are linked to Etranzact.
If you asked me, I’d say frankly, Etranzact has no chance of competing with the new E-Zwich unless they can add useful and functional value-added-services that will not be available on E-Zwich.

Mastercard
Ghana Commercial Bank (GCB) - the bank with the largest/widest branches in Ghana - announced it would be issuing Mastercard products last year, as well as upgrade its ATMs nationwide to link with the international Mastercard payment platform. Mastercard credit/debit card holders from anywhere around the world will be able to use their cards on GCB ATMs in Ghana and GCB customers will be able to use their cards on Mastercard ATMs around the world.
From the information I got on Mastercard’s website, some 5 ATMs distributed across Accra, Tema, Kumasi and Takoradi are currently linked to the international Mastercard platform. I do not have an independent confirmation of this.

Mondex (defunct?)
I am not sure if this platform is still functional but at a time, it linked Ghana Commercial Bank (GCB) and Agricultural Development Bank (ADB) ATMs.

Bottomline? E-Zwich will not kill the other current payment platforms in Ghana. It would amongst other things significantly improve the network connectivity of ATMs in the west African country and bring about much more convenience for end-users.

What are your thoughts?

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This match decides, to some extent, whether Nigeria stays or is knocked-out of this competition. So far, Nigerians have understandably not been satisfied with the poor performance of the Super Eagles.

After 45 mins of play, Nigeria 0 - Benin 0. What a poor performance by the Super Eagles.

After full time, Nigeria managed to qualified for the Quater Finals of the tournament after beating Benin 2 - 0 and Cote d’Ivoire beat Mali 3 -0. Nigeria now faces Ghana coming Sunday.

What are your thoughts?