Sterling Bank Unveils Contactless Payment Solution, “OnePay For Business”
Sterling Bank Plc has launched a first of its kind contactless, cardless and cashless payment solution, Onepay to boost the ease of doing business in Nigeria.
The OnePay payment solution is an App where users scan the QR code on the App, instantly money leaves the account of the person scanning the QR code and credits the merchant’s account with a click of a button.
The Sterling OnePay solution is a one-stop-shop that converts customer’s mobile phone into a Point of sale (POS) terminal for acceptance.
According to Sterling Bank, the OnePay App also comes with a Pay Respecter tool App that allows the merchant to lend to their customers. So if a customer wants to buy from you and pay small, you can make that happen.
Speaking, Oladipo Alagbede, product Launcher, and Host said the payment solution comes with a Bluetooth device where the transaction can be done without contact of phone, cards or even exchange of vital banking information.
“This is an App that converts customers’ mobile phone into a Point of sale (POS) terminal for acceptance. When you go into a merchant’s location or supermarket and want to buy something, you either bring out your card to put into a POS terminal for that transaction to be completed or you pay via cash.
The customer can simply make payment into the merchant’s account and the merchant will get the money instantly. So what this does is that instead of the merchant, or supermarket having a POS, they now have a POS on their mobile phone.
“The new normal is what we have found ourselves in. During the pandemic, we have discovered that the things we took for granted are no longer within our reach. Shaking hands is no longer common now. We now decided among ourselves what this mean for the payment system, and we saw the effect of the lockdown during which a lot of business came to the banking hall with challenges and we asked ourselves if is there are better and innovative ways to change how small businesses in Nigeria are able to receive payment from their customers and make life a lot easier for them.
So, we looked at everything and we told ourselves that there is one thing we don’t leave our house without. You can forget your wallet at home, some people can even forget their car keys at home and jump on Okada or busses and get to where they are going. But you can’t forget your phone at home. If you do, you would return home and get it. This phone has become a mainstay in our lives.”
According to Alagbede,” You use it to snap pictures, download files, watch videos and small business now use to receive payments from their customers and this is what gave birth to the Sterling Bank OnePay payment solution.
It’s a Contactless, cardless, cashless payment solution. If you go to a merchant and you want to buy something. There are two ways you can make payment. The first way is you give them cash, and you don’t know where that cash is coming from, whether it’s from one bus conductor or where ever, but you are touching that card and the second way is you use your debit card.
Fine, you know where your debit card has been, in your wallet. But that POS that they are bringing to you, you don’t know who has touched it.”
He added that “Outside that, we also thought about how we can make it seamless because with traditional payment methods come with different challenges which range from payment downtime, payment settlement delays and for most merchants, they don’t get their money on time.
Finally, we also thought about other small businesses that are not within the payment solutions yet, those that still keep their money in shops And we said one of the things that will help them is if we can give them a product that works as near as cash.
When I come to your shop to buy something and give you N500 and you can take that N500 to the market to buy something. So, we have come up with a product that does exactly that and we have partnered with the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System Plc (NIBSS) to launch this product, which means that other customers from other banks can scan the QR Code on the App and make payment. The product also has a Bluetooth payment available and other Contactless solution like the tap and go on the App.”
Alagbede added that the Onepay App is like a one-stop-shop for all payment solutions. “So, we are moving all these into a single product that does multiple things. It can also do inventory management for the merchant. So this is solely built for the small business and medium enterprise and even large corporate staff. It’s simple, unique, mobile, contactless, it’s cardless and cashless. ”
Also speaking, Yinka Oni, Chief Digital Officer, Sterling Bank said the need to enrich lives was uppermost in creating the Onepay payment solution, especially amidst the Covid-19 pandemic.
“One of the things we have always wanted to do at Sterling Bank is by enriching lives. The fact that people can get their settlement values instantly means obviously they can ultimately create more wealth and that is in a way enriching their lives.
Customers are able to enjoy Contactless and make payment in a time where all of us are watching surfaces and are social distancing. So we are enriching the lives of customers from a health and security perspective. We are eager to see how this is going to improve lives and businesses and constantly enrich the product to ensure that it delivers on its promise.”
In his goodwill message, Ibrahim Babalola, the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Clane Company Nigeria Limited endorsed the mobile App, lauding Sterling Bank Plc for the mind-blowing initiative.
“When you think about the issues that the banking industry have had in scaling traditional mode of payment in the cost perspective, you will see the limitation that we have had using traditional POS terminals. With just over 300,000 POS Servicing over 50 million cards definitely, we are not at the right scale yet because it’s still too expensive.
For a bank to recover the cost of buying a traditional POS,, a business would have to turn over a lot of money. What that does is that it disqualifies a lot of merchants from accessing POS terminals. There are millions and millions of small businesses that would have issues accessing the right number of POS terminals.
What this has done now is to bring millions of small businesses into the acceptance network, which means the guy repairing the phone can start accepting payment via his mobile phone.
He added that “If that is not mindblowing, I wonder what is mindblowing. You are saying that you can actually is that you can get your customers to pay you via Bluetooth without sharing details, Bank information and it also offers pay respected, where merchants can offer credit to their customers. This is a very innovative product and we are happy to be supporting it.”
On the security feature of the App, the lender noted that adequate safety measures have been put in place to protect users against fraud. “The product is very secure and as a bank, we pride ourselves on making sure that every product that we put out there is top-notch. We have embedded the highest security protocols to endure that the App is protected.”
A customer, who deals in the sale and distribution of pharmaceutical products affirmed the reliability and fast rate of using the Sterling Bank QR payment code.
“One of the major challenges I had receiving payment is that most of the times, there are network issues and when there is a network issue, the payment doesn’t come.
Is it either delayed or denied? I end up losing customers at the end of the day using POS terminals and sometimes, the transfer doesn’t go that easily. Since I started using the Sterling Bank QR Code receive payment, payment has been fast and instant as well. I get my alert on time and will recommend it to other business owners and merchants. The payment is instant, not like POS where you get your money the next day,” she said.
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