Zenith Bank is now issuing Visa credit, debit and prepaid cards in Nigeria. Visa is fast gaining acceptance in Nigeria.

On the 15th of October 2004, Ecobank Nigeria Plc made history when it launched the first ever internationally accepted credit card in Nigeria – the Ecobank MasterCard. With the launch of the Ecobank MasterCard, Ecobank availed Nigerians the benefits and privileges of a convenient international payment card for online and offline financial transactions. The challenges [...]

What is InterSwitch about? According to their website: 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 [...]

A news item on Vanguard’s website indicates that Nigerian-issued Etranzact cards can be used on Etranzact-linked ATMs in Ghana and vice-versa: 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 [...]

Something new is coming to town this April 2008. E-zwich. 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 [...]

A few years ago, there was no single country on the African continent where one could send/receive money online via Paypal. Not one. Then there was South Africa. A few countries were added, as most were later covered. Even now, all the African countries can only send – they cannot receive money via Paypal. Any [...]

Paypal users in 26 countries can now withdraw their funds to their credit, debit or prepaid cards – so long the cards are branded Mastercard or Visa. New today, PayPal now offers account balance withdrawals to Visa-branded credit, debit, or prepaid cards in 26 international markets. This feature greatly improves the utility of PayPal accounts [...]

This blog post is a direct response to Erik Hersman’s blog post: The problem with e-commerce and online payments in Africa. Erik Hersman, a fellow African blogger, shared his thoughts about the need for an African e-payment system. He starts with a lamentation that is indeed true: A lack of true online payment options is [...]

I came across an article at NigeriaGalleria.com just now, that not only highlights some of the challenges of doing business online from Nigeria, but also offers some solid advice on going around the challenges. It’s titled: “Obstacles to Conducting Internet Business in Nigeria“. These obstacles vary from the poor electricity supply in Nigeria, to the [...]

Ecobank Ghana Limited, the local subsidiary of the pan-African Ecobank has chalked another first, by being the first bank in Ghana to offer a credit card. The card is not only denominated in cedis, but is also acceptable at any VISA ATM or Point-of -Sale, in Ghana and around the globe. The new credit card [...]

I got to know about CashCards for the first time, in June 2002. At that time, they were offering V-cash (a digital currency system), a VISA ATM card, e-gold to v-cash transfer and vice-versa. CashCards was also running GoldLynks. According to their website in 2001: The GoldLynks Club Dedicated to the Advancement and Enrichment of [...]

BusinessWeek recently published an article putting e-gold in the spotlight, after its offices was raided by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents, in the USA. Read on…