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.

Here is an excerpt from an email I received from ReloadNG.com regarding this issue:

Please make use of the cash deposit feature to keep enjoying our services till the banks activate back online access and for our customers who don\'t have ATM cards you can also make use of the pay cash option.

We appreciate your patronage.

For any additional information required please call 01-7412703 or email admin@.com

Thank You and Happy Valentine\'s day.

ReloadNG Team

Holy Moses! Just a few days ago, I discovered ReloadNG.com and attempted to buy some airtime for a friend in Nigeria. I signed-up and attempted to pay using my 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. I was even thinking Interswitch had restricted my card because I was using it from Ghana (I now know they're not that sophisticated) but I can confirm this is not the case. We're back to the stone age!

Stone age ke?

We are now where we should have been.

I maintained from Day 1 that interswitch will not last because they failed to learn how to implement an online payment system, getting and configuration a payment script is certainly not enough and it is not surprising at all that we have gone round the bend on this one.

Teething problems? After how many years?

Until some form of "ID system" is established, where by verification can be made that regarding ones identity, address, phone number, etc., trying to do any kind of e-commerce will be difficult. Two very important parts of e-commerce security, Authorization and Authentication need to be established before any kind of e-commerce can be successful.

Does anyone knows the promoter of EproAfrica?

We need to tell them that they need to do more work on their website to promote e-commerce in Nigeria. There are so many broken links. In its current state it doesn't give the user the confidence that they will provide a reliable and secured alternative. I can help them out if they need help.

WafiGuy.

which begs the question wafi:

why would I use them, given all you just stated above?

If this so called Interswitch is failing to function well then I think people should remove their trust in them. But if I may ask, is it that there are no other companies to come up with better services like them? Etranzact is there but it seems the Interswitch blocked the access for any other company to offer ATM card access in Nigerian banks. In fact, this is true. I can confirm this because an insider from the IT department of one of our banks confirmed this that they have bought over the Excos of our banks thereby giving no access to other companies to come in. All you can do if you come in is to make use of only payment platforms which they will not even be willing to give you their API to enable integration with your new gateway. If they have started failing then people that subscribe to them should start demanding refund and compensation so that they will be moved to be better. Another solution should be for webmasters to mount pressure if possible on the banks so that they will give access to other interested companies to offer what they have.

This is what I feel anyway. No hassles!

If e-commerce suffers setback in Nigeria, then why cannot you as Nigerian webmaster develops your own secured (https:// or SSL-certified) hashing algorithm database-driven e-commerce site with ASP, JAVA, CGI, or PHP-based validated order form that will store at any database server(MySQL, Access, MSQL, other ODBC-based) temporarily and notify the webmaster by web-hosting email address (not yahoo mail)?

Then the webmaster is fully responsible manually decode the hashing algorithm in order to transfer the transaction toward its own bank online or paper for deduction then delete critical information inside database table fields once the transaction is paid in full complying with the transaction law (credit card/bank account).

Don't ask me for help! Google it! Google it!

Well, I agree that an alternative is needed.

Just Web Services may take up the challenge and build one from scratch soon.

The issue of interswitch paying money to banks to keep competing products out is a non issue because once people see the value of any reliable alternative the rest will be history.

Why can't you guys think out of the box? Must the card be integrated with banks? Must it be an atm card !!

My comments are certainly out of ATM. I am a web person and any solution I may develop will have online transactions as the focus not ATM.

I think i have made my point for asked the house in the programming section if it would be possible for use to build our own secure online payment system and i got alot of reactions from it majority of them were negative but i strongly believe that we can still break the jinks of this monopolistics chaps who do not realize that time is changing. before paypal came out there were other e-payment system but that did not stop paypal from becoming the choice payment system

Oh well! Looks like interswitch is still holding e-commerce back in Nigeria and websites like ReloadNG still haven't broken into the mainstream.
Now all that people offer is "Pay on delivery".

I currently recieve CARD payments on my website using VoguePAY payment processor. There are others like cash envoy and simple pay.

ojochidem: I currently recieve CARD payments on my website using VoguePAY payment processor. There are others like cash envoy and simple pay.

Oh yes and it's still interswitch.

Brand_new:
Oh yes and it's still interswitch.

Right on Point. Hoping other companies will come up soon.