At a weekend briefing reported by The Punch, Interswitch and partner banks said phone and wallet taps that replace card numbers with tokens are the next step for Nigerian payments; no date has been given for wide availability.
Interswitch and partner banks used a press briefing at the weekend to make the case for tokenised payments, The Punch reported. In tokenised payments a phone or other device stands in for a physical card and a substitute number, or token, replaces the real card details at checkout. “Where we are going is just tapping,” Akeem Lawal, managing director for payment processing and switching at Interswitch Purepay, said, according to The Punch. Jimmy Banjoko, head of the digital banking division at GTBank, described the Nigerian market as being at an early stage of adoption. In a 21 October statement, Interswitch said it is working with banks, card schemes and merchants on the connections needed to accept tap-to-pay and wallet transactions, and is supporting similar work in Kenya and Uganda. Customers could confirm payments with a fingerprint or face scan on their device. Interswitch has not given a timetable for when customers of particular banks can use the service.
Sources: The Punch · The Guardian Nigeria · BusinessDay