Delinka, thanks for the information, but you know it's not like we wouldn't have done all the necessary research on what potential competitors or otherwise are offering into the market. I was just trying to humour you. The main point is that if the 20 banks do not give interswitch the backing/support it really needs to get off the ground, the whole idea will be another whitewash. There are a lot of fine details I will not go into here, but first contact and experience with interswitch was unbelievable and it still is and until they can get the philosophy of the whole epayment space right, the whole thing will just collapse under the complaints of the masses.

You see, a service like interswitch needs to be very thorough, open and transparent to the people in order that trust is attained at the highest levels. They need to feed the market with weekly if not daily updates of the progress they are making along the lines of the services they are offering. It is only then that the public will be confident enough to take up "DEBIT CARDS" that are plugged straight into their bank accounts.

You see I've heard a lot of people say that they use the debit cards, that they work, etc etc. YES the debit card works, that's not the point.

The point is whether the customer acquisition rate justifies their business model in the short term, bottomline how many transactions have they processed to date and does it justify the business model, and what are the projections. Let them go public with their successes and difficulties.

I have seen VISA's history in figures from their humble beginnings ( I'm also proud to have seen the introduction of the service into the UK market so many years ago, when Barclays Bank (UK) was the only bank brave enough to take up the service then with the product Barclays VISA) and it makes very interesting reading and they need to adopt a very tight and friendly marketing strategy that will win the consumers confidence. They also need to take into consideration the literacy levels of the nation as a whole. How many customers in Nigeria are bankable and what percentage of those will take up debit cards and if they do take up the debit cards where can they use them, will the current Nigerian infrastructure permit the widespread usage?


There are so many issues the banks need to address before any payment "switching" service like interswitch can make the desired progress. And also focus is very important, you cannot be a jack of all in the name of trying to prevent other PSP's from joining the payment space. No

You will actually be doing yourself a great disservice. So, Kudos to the consortium of banks that put it together, they definitely have something good going, but it stands the risk of collapsing under it's own weight if the right stratgey is not adopted ASAP. You need to get the service delivery right first, reduce the number of complaints, speed up the card issuing process and many more that I will not go into here.

Thanks


NETICASH

neticash:

You see, a service like interswitch needs to be very thorough, open and transparent to the people in order that trust is attained at the highest levels.

I am with you in relation, their cost breakdown, merchant and client policies, APIs are highly classified.

neticash:

They need to feed the market with weekly if not daily updates of the progress they are making along the lines of the services they are offering. It is only then that the public will be confident enough to take up "DEBIT CARDS" that are plugged straight into their bank accounts.

Not necessarily in respect to feeds. My opinion in regards is pretty simple, you would never find any country where ATM cards are used for shopping online. The issue here is, is it safe to use an ATM card that is directly attached to your bank account to shop online? Are there charge-back policies to safeguard customers ? What current protocols are used to ensure that your ATM card are not subjected to theft or even misuse?

Interswitch would not survive with a high usability status, why? Visa and Mastercard would testify that even with their CCVS (Credit Card Verification System), Phone number, Billing address, and expiry date, authentication protocols in place, it is still susceptible to massive identity theft and fraud purchases.

Now how would an ATM card with just a pin number as verification be safe from fraud or theft? Especially in a country like Nigeria? Considering that I wouldn't dare use my ATM card on an online Nigerian shop.

neticash:

How many customers in Nigeria are bankable and what percentage of those will take up debit cards and if they do take up the debit cards where can they use them, will the current Nigerian infrastructure permit the widespread usage?

I heared that Interswitch has about 1.8 million card subscribers, but thats a small figure in comparison to a country with about 170 million or more population where about 60% have active bank accounts.

neticash:

You need to get the service delivery right first, reduce the number of complaints, speed up the card issuing process and many more that I will not go into here.

Not necessarily. 2checkout for example and even paypal face a lot of complaints daily. There are even dedicated websites developed to criticise them. Lets be honest, even NETICASH is not up-to it, I just don't want to hit on it, its not a nice thing to do.

Service delivery, you don't really know, because you have not tried them , One thing I know is their support response time, sucks, it takes weeks.

Hey Guys,judging from the pace at which WhoGoBuy has been growing and it's acceptance by a large bulk of Nigerians as a vritual market place where goods can be easily located,it is safe to say the brains behind the site represents the Nigerian mind.And isn't it sweet that i can get the cheapest things on the site and not have to worry about on line payments which hasn't still left a mark on the 9ja mentality?
kudos to WhoGoBuy,i wish them the best and more sucesses to their efforts to give Nigerians a safe,business friendly forum.

All we want to say:
Keep a close eye on us! We are coming soon!
http://groups.msn.com/2deal4real/_whatsnew.msnw

Yes, it seems to have been growing. Do they now have a revenue model?

There's this one too: www.flegz.com, I just saw it today and it looks nice too, only the Yahoo! scare

i tried to go there but the page just showed me was 'service unavailable'

Wonderful idea.Hope dey maintain it?

Whogobuy is not an idea that will last because the very essence of ecommerce is missing.

Interswitch never had a serious plan to succeed in the first place.

Before Nigerians can enjoy the real benefits of online payments both the online payment gateway provider and the online merchant must have a very clear understanding of what it takes to start and complete an online transaction in a safe, secure and convenient manner.

There is really no point in stating the obvious, these people know the facts as regards their business processes.

As a single individual I setup an online portal where Nigerians can do virtually anything that makes sense to them. Everything was coded from scratch and I only do this at my spare time and here we have companies doing all the talking without any actions.

Yu right i thot of that too.There is room for improvement though.

Heard about it june last year. Was quite difficult accessing the site though

Check out my friends online marketplace 2deal4 real .com, Posting ads is 100% FREE

Mustay:

Heard about it june last year. Was quite difficult accessing the site though

Its gd though

Good job Seun. Nice Site

Let's face it, we Nigerians have soiled our name completely when it comes to buying and selling online.

On EBay alone you will see items listed specifically warning Nigerians to stay away; also if you do a search for “Nigeria auction” on Google, you will only come up with results from fraud alert.


This is a pity I must say, because Nigeria is entrepreneur driven, buying and selling is in the blood.

As a result, because of many, not just a few bad eggs, this opportunity of online buying and selling has been blocked in many ways.

Thank God that Nigerians are coming up with new ideas on how to revive this opportunity to allow Nigerians use the Internet for trade with new auction platforms dedicated to Nigerian Buyers and Sellers.

whogobuy.com is good, but in my own opinion does not measure to the standard of . Bidnigeria is bringing to the nigeria market what ebay is already doing with buying and selling online. Just like ebay affiliate programme, Bidnigeria also have a powerful affillite programme in which every member can benefit from.

Bidnigeria has not been launched, but the site is already showing that it's going to ROCK the Nigeria Market. The Actual launch Date is June 15th 2007

The people behind Bidnigeria have personally been involved in building and managing several of multimillion Naira/Dollars Companies on the web both at home and abroad, some from scratch and all from a single location… the Internet.

From My Personal Research, I came up with this:

Company: Edward Hadome Ltd
URL: WWW.BIDNIGERIA.COM
Address: SUITE 10 196 ROSE STREET, EDINBURGH, EH2 4AT, United Kingdom

When I googled Edward Hadome Ltd, I came up with Information that shows that The people behind Bidnigeria are Experienced in the field.

You can also check out the two sites yourself and share your opinion about them.

WWW.WHOGOBUY.COM {Affiliate Pogramme Still pending}

WWW.BIDNIGERIA.COM {WWW.NIGERIABID.INC.TC} The Affiliate Sign up site.

Nigeria is Changing, Thank God for this,

Cheers

---

God bless Nigeria

Yes oh we thank God.We are going global

Hey All,
Have you checked this one out www.eBuyNigeria.com

i like competition. It is for the good of the customer. I just hope these sites have physical addresses and thre are human faces to them.it.

also see www.karajakataja.com its fast, efficient, reliable above its free and they have human faces.

una deh try

i hate to click so many times b4 i see waitin i want buy

una don visit ebay? see how easy e b

make una try display allmost everything on d first page (the items, description and even the price) to make search easy.

up 9ger! make una keep it up!!

dearstan:

Hey All,
Have you checked this one out www.ebuynigeria.com
I think it's a whole lot better than www.whogobuy.com considering what they offer.
Its just short of items now because they just went operational.

http://www.ebuynigeria.com

This site no bad oh

http://www.google.com.ng/search?q=buying+and+selling+portals+in+nigeria&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a

see all operators in nigeria now

check out naija premier computer trading site
www.EEZEEmarkEt.com
sell your items with any number of pictures free and easily.
enjoy

Good developments

I know it is an old thread but it contains vital information. The first post is that of seun giving a site a head up (whogobuy.com) and this must be about the same time nairaland was also gaining ground. Many years on, Nairaland is a big boy, whogobuy never really took off.

It is the tale of startups in Nigeria and it makes me ask again and again, How is nairaland an exception?

Ask yourself, why do I come to Nairaland everytime?

Nairaland was an exception because it relied on the same thing that facebook, twitter relied on, and that's people to people communication, A website is likely to succeed more when more people believe they can interact with each other people regularly and share information.

On top of that, the builder of Nairaland understood the concept of not wasting time or giving big graphics, simply deliver what it needs to deliver, just like facebook. Nairaland is a pool of information resource ground, and a place where Nigerians home and abroad meet and talk.

The original post was 2005 and we are 2010 an Nairaland is no doubt the biggest website in Nigeria BUT for how long.

Nairaland should have evolved into a social networking site long time ago, a market dominated by Facebook and Twitter in Nigeria.

In the end, it all boils down to the visionaries of Nairaland.