PayU aims to connect Nigerian businesses to online payment market

PayU yesterday announced it has rolled out strategies to intensify efforts to connect businesses to Nigeria’s online payment market. Annual online payments in Nigeria is estimated to surpass N200 billion this year from N167 billion in 2016.

Country Manager of PayU Nigeria, Ms Juliet Nwanguma,  says, “In order to pursue PayU’s aggressive expansion in the online payment market in Nigeria, we have identified businesses that can benefit from our  global expertise across 16 markets where we offer over 250 payment options.”

With over 2.3 billion users world-wide, PayU is confident it can help businesses grow their market share and help them to achieve their business objectives.

Data recently released by the Nigeria Interbank Settlement System (NIBSS) showed that 5.5 million transactions worth N46.7 billion were generated through online sales in the first quarter of 2017. This is an increase in the quarterly average of 3.5 million transactions worth N33 billion in 2016. This 58% growth is a clear indication of the increased confidence and preference for online sales amongst Nigerians.

The double digit growth, according to Nwanguma, is far below the potential of the market for online payments in Nigeria.

Nwanguma noted that in a country of over 180 million people, consisting of 61 million active bank customers and where e-payment transactions are worth N56 trillion in a year, the potential for online payments in Nigeria is huge and waiting to be tapped.

She disclosed that the mission of PayU is to leverage on Nigeria’s 97 million active internet users to popularise and increase online payments in Nigeria.

“At PayU, we believe that with the deployment of appropriate strategies and products which are designed to encourage more businesses to adopt online payment, the market in Nigeria can record triple digit growth in both volume and value of online payments. This is the driving philosophy of PayU’s operations in Nigeria” she said.

Since last year when we entered the Nigerian market, we have used our globally tested products such as tokenisation, recurring payments for subscription services and single click payments for faster checkout. Our range of services according to different business categories especially the PayU Easy service allows start-ups to start selling online instantly without the need of a bank account or trading history. ”

“PayU has succeeded in successfully assisting small, medium and large organisations with their online payments. In particular, the robust and flexible features of PayU Plus and PayU Enterprise have assisted merchants to grow and expand their online payment business.”

PayU offers merchants safe, secure, online shopping.  Their products are   PCI DSS Level 1 compliant which mean they are required to meet extremely stringent security criteria. All card details are secured by secure socket layer (SSL) and transfer layer security (TLS) encryption and reinforced through various encryption processes in order to provide protection for all payment information.   They also are 3D secure enabled which gives consumers added security when shopping online.

The increased preference for online payments among Nigerians offers new opportunity for businesses to increase patronage and grow revenue.

The global expertise of PayU, combined with its easy-to-use and secure online products provide the channel to leverage on this opportunity and achieve business objectives.