The Managing Director of Africa’s largest online hotel booking platformJovago, Marek Zmyslowski has stated that e-commerce is the key driving innovation factor for mobile payments in Nigeria.
In a statement made on a panel for Mobile Payment Solutions for the Nigerian Market at the on-going Nigeria Com Conference, which Marek Zmyslowski attended yesterday at the Oriental Hotel, he said that E-commerce in Nigeria has experienced a boom with the likes of Jumia and Kaymu entering the market. With the increasing Internet access, more affordable data costs, mobile connectivity and the convenience of purchasing goods and services online, more Nigerians are beginning to embrace the culture of transacting business online.
As Zmyslowski noted, with the increase in more people purchasing goods online, booking hotels online and transacting other forms of business online, mobile payment is on a steady rise. He further added “this is why at Jovago.com, we are constantly innovating with better and more secure forms of mobile payment. In July we launched the Mpesa mobile payment platform for our customers in Kenya and the SimplePay was rolled out in August to aid mobile payment for our Nigerian customers.”
With the recent entry of PayPal into the Nigerian market and with players like Mastercard and Interswitch already competing to provide secure online payments, it will only be a matter of time before Nigerians come to totally embrace the culture of paying for goods and services online.