Well i think you can go into programming or software development for any reason you like, be it passion, money or just sheer custiousity as long as whatever your motivation is is able to push you through the long nights of debugging sessions and typing routines. you just need motivation and be able to reason logically.

Java is a great platform and so is Microsoft.NET i would recommend any of this two for any beginer who wants to delve into the exciting world of software development, remeber im using the word platform here, not language; from a language point of view all OOP languages are the same and solve the same problems in similar ways be it VB.NET, Java or C#, Ruby, Python or Haskel, yes they may be group into strongly typed, dynamic,functional and all that software dev jargon but an Object is an Object is an Object, every where.

when you pick a platform like Java and work with it extensively for like 2 years, you have the opportunity to use it as a tool to solve a myriad of problems ranging from the simplistic enterprise read write to database, to seeming high level natural language processing and expert systems, from console based hello world applications to robotics, viz Java can solve all your problems, so can .NET, but once you have mastered any of these frameworks, it would be easy for you to compare with others and know where their strenghts and weaknesses lie, then you would be able to pick the right tool for the right job, and learning any new programming language would be a breeze esp if they are OOP based, e.g if you have worked with Java or C# extensively, you should not spend more than 6 hours learning Ruby, PHP or Python or even C++ (The OOP Part of it).

So bottom line is this, one programming language is not entirely better than the other, you can pick and paltform and master it. from there you can make the best decsions as to the right tool for the job

that interswitch is no where near mastercard is a very ignorant statement. today mastercard transactions in nigeria are routed through interswitch. the chip and pin system you guys are seriously touting was launched in 2001 about the same time interswitch started and that is the technology they have operated on since day one , magnetic stripe and PIN , where the PIN is the security. if you had the slightest idea of the internal workings of the switch and the webpay solution that allows for web payments, the security and checks that have been put in place even to reduce phishing to the nearest minimum you would swallow your words.

the fact that mastercard, europay and visa have been around eons ago does not mean that they are far better than a switch that started yesterday, chances are that techologies they have built and enhanced over centuries could be adpoted by a payment system that started yesterday. however interswitch's infrastructure is EMV compliant.

we should do a little more research and make our deductions based on facts not on emotions and baseless talk, that way our arguments can be more objective.

for a financial switch to operate in "Nigeria" and be sucessful. they must have done MORE THAN ENOUGH WORK!!!!

seun:

Very good question, jogego. For people living outside the country, options include:
1) Western Union money transfer, which (unfortunately) is slower than the MTEL method.
2) Paypal, which is officially off-limits to people who live in Nigerian.

The Western Union (or Moneygram) method, though it's slow and rather inconvenient, may turn out to be the only viable method, in which case the amount you will put into your 'nairaland account' at one time will be more than what people in the country will pay.

What do [I]you[/I] suggest?

Have you looked at InterSwitch pple can use their debit cards to pay today check out www.rechargeNigeria.com