E-commerce firms promoting Nigeria’s cashless economy policy

With the innovations by e-commerce platforms, more Nigerians including retailers are keying to the cashless policy of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). The policy is targeted at tackling some of the negative consequences associated with the usage of physical cash in the economy, including inconveniency and risk of theft and armed robbery.

Business to business transactions are much easier these days as retailers conveniently source fast moving goods from manufacturers and authorised dealers to sell to customers.

Alerzo, for instance, through its Alerzoshop, Alerzopay and PoS terminals provide retailers the means to order goods and make cashless payments. With the PoS machines, retailers can act as agents for customer deposits, withdrawals, utility bill payments, and others.

Through its Alerzopay PoS terminals, the firm said it is supporting the government‘s drive towards a cashless economy, as well as making lives easier for its customers and reducing their cash transactions.

A retailer described how being on the Alerzo platform has brought her ease while increasing her profit margins.

“Doing business with Alerzo got much easier with the PoS payment. Ever since I have been using Alerzopay, customers find it much easier to use their ATM cards to pay for goods. I used the Alerzopay to make payment for the goods I purchased on Alerzoshop.

“I have gained more customers in the sense that they do not need to go far to withdraw money. They use Alerzo PoS to make payment for goods. We have been using it to buy data, pay our electricity bill, Pay-tv subscriptions and life has been easy with Alerzo,” she said.

Buttressing this, Founder and Group CEO of Alerzo, a leading B2B e-commerce company, Adewale Opaleye, pointed out that the e-commerce firm, through technology, provides opportunities especially for retailers to maximize profits and grow.

He said: “We built a financial tool like the POS terminal that accepts digital payment from retailers.

They (retailers) can accept payment from our device called Alerzopay. On top of that, they can order products they need from Alerzoshop platform.”

However, as more Nigerians embrace digital payment solutions provided by e-commerce platforms, certainly the cord of the cashless economy policy will be strengthened.