The pilot phase is expected to provide at the initial stage, 13 million MasterCard-branded National Identity Smart Cards with electronic payment capability.
Addressing newsmen in Lagos, yesterday, MasterCard’s Vice President and Area Business Head, West Africa, Omokehinde Ojomuyide said the involvement of the company was to ensure the cards are well secured and globally acceptable, adding that “MasterCard is also saddled with the responsibility of deepening financial inclusion and promoting the cash-less initiatives.”
Ojomuyide, who denied the allegation that MasterCard took away the entire contract, said the company decided to base its operations in the country, given the strategic importance of the country in the continents numerous opportunities for business and growth.
According to her, the institution has identified with the country’s financial inclusion and cash-less initiative, which seek to reduce the number of the unbanked and reduce the costs associated with cash transactions.
She said that the company’s experience for over 40 years of its existence would be brought to bear on the provision of services that will ensure the country financial system’s aspirations, by making payments simple, safe and smart.
She noted that the cash-less initiative was a forward-looking scheme, saying that presently, the cost of cash-based economy is between 0.5 per cent and 1.5 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product of various economies.
According to her, the sources of the costs include printing and distribution, security and handling, lost time associated with queuing to withdraw cash.
The MasterCard’s Vice President and Area Business Head, West Africa, who said the card will be issued before the end of the year, noted that corruption, which is the issue in many economies today are facilitated by cash-based regime, adding that robbery, terrorism financing, kidnapping are all products of huge cash transactions, as complicates every efforts to trace the sources.
She said that the company’s services and product offerings to governments include social security payments system, procurements, payrolls and revenue receipts, which are strategic for economic growth and development.
She informed that the card scheme is the largest roll-out of a formal electronic payment solution in the country and the broadest financial inclusion initiative of its kind on the African continent.
At the World Economic Forum in May, where MasterCard was selected as technical partner to the scheme, it was announced that in its first phase, Nigerians from 16 years and above and all residents in the country for more than two years will get the new multipurpose identity card which has the capacity of about 13 different applications, including MasterCard’s prepaid payment technology that will provide cardholders with the safety, convenience and reliability of electronic payments.
It was disclosed that this will have a significant and positive impact on the lives of these Nigerians who have not previously had access to financial services.
It was also announced at the forum that the project will have Access Bank Plc as the pilot issuer bank for the cards and Unified Payment Services Limited (Unified Payments) as the payment processor. Other issuing banks will include United Bank for Africa, Union Bank, Zenith, Skye Bank, Unity Bank, Stanbic IBTC, First Bank and others currently signing on.
The Director General and Chief Executive of the NIMC, Chris ‘E Onyemenam had said at the Forum in May, “We have chosen MasterCard to be the payment technology provider for the initial rollout of the National Identity Smart Card project because the Company has shown a commitment to furthering financial inclusion through the reduction of cash in the Nigerian economy.”
He added: “MasterCard has pioneered large scale card schemes that combine biometric functionality with electronic payments and we want to capitalize on their experience in this field to make our program rollout a sustainable success for the country and for the continent.”
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