Xpress Payment Plans to Bridge Financial Inclusion Gap
Stories by Emma Okonji
Xpress Payment Solutions Limited, a financial technology company that specialises in the design, implementation and provision of electronic payment solutions, has announced plans to further bridge the existing financial inclusion gap in the country through its indigenous technology solutions that have received the nod of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
The solutions and products that address critical payment challenges, are billed for official launch to the general public next week in Lagos.
Announcing the products and services at a press conference in Lagos,
the Managing Director/ CEO, Xpress Payment, Oluwadare Owolabi, said most of the solutions were designed to support agency banking that is focused on financial inclusion drive in rural communities.
He explained that the company had been successfully carrying out transactions with registered agents and that there was an urgent need to bring stakeholders on board in a bid to publicise and reposition themselves in the increasingly cluttered fintech space in Nigeria.
Owolabi, further revealed that the company’s agency banking solution, known as Xpress Agent, is a banking platform that offers customers an additional income stream.
“The platform is equally convenient, protected and regulated by the CBN and it comes with unique selling propositions such as same day settlement, robust and userfriendly platforms, adequate branding materials, timely access to commissions and commissions view as you earn,” he said.
According to him, the company, which commenced operation in the fintech space in 2016, is licensed as payment transaction switching services, third party processing service, payment terminal management services and as a payment terminal service provider, and it is currently managing point of sales (PoS) terminals for over 18 merchant acquirers.
The company, he said, operates a business philosophy of business to business(B2B), business to government(B2G) and business to consumer (B2C).
Other solutions from Xpress Payment, according to Owolabi, include Xpress Pay Settlement, Xpress e-cashier, Xpress Payout, and Xpress Reg.
Owolabi called on the federal government to give more freedom to local agents by empowering them with more products and services that will enable more patronage. He however decried government’s decision to place more taxes on PoS deployment, saying it will discourage companies to deploy PoS terminals, especially now that banks have stopped deploying PoS.