E-payment network problems can be resolved — Obaro

The Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, SystemSpecs Company Limited, a financial software development company, Mr. John Obaro, says poor network problems affecting e-payment channels are not irresolvable. He also affirms, in this interview with OYETUNJI ABIOYE, that e-payment transactions are increasing amid infrastructural challenges

What are some of the challenges facing the Central Bank of Nigeria’s cashless drive?

Well, the first thing people always talk about is infrastructural challenges. The mere fact that there are infrastructural challenges has not stopped the rapid growth of e-payment in Nigeria. We are not where we were five years ago. In fact, we are not where we were two years ago. Therefore, many things are improving. We know we are not yet there, but we should not discountenance the fact that a lot of progress has been made. We cannot wait and say we cannot practice e-payment until everything is perfect because that day will not come. Even if you go to the developed countries, you still have occasional failures. You still have communication challenges. It may not be as much as we have here, but they still happen. Therefore, I really would not want us to focus on a glass that is half-empty, let us focus on the portion that is half-full. We have the opportunities with us here, things are happening, and things are getting better. So, let us focus on the fact that it is growing and the challenges that are coming up are not irresolvable.

How would you assess the cashless Nigeria policy?

Cashless policy is the direction of the world. The convenience is so obvious. Even in Nigeria, the resistance that was there in the early days is beginning to thin out because people are beginning to see the benefits; they are seeing that this thing works, and things can only get better. So I see a situation in which more players will come. With the banks now fully on board on electronic payments, it is obvious that this is the direction things will go in the country as well.

Don’t you thing that the spate of electronic frauds can discourage more Nigerians from adopting e-payment channels?

There has always been fraud wherever you have man and money. The bulk of cash are now moving from cash to electronic space; of course the robbers will follow. But the good news is that it is actually easier to put in controls in the electronic space. We are not saying fraud will not happen, but it becomes much easier to put in controls. With tracker, you can monitor where the money is going to and who is doing what. Thieves thrive under anonymity. When they know that they cannot be caught and nobody will know they did it, they will continue. But when they know that in the electronic space, they would be tracked though it takes time, they will retract. Yes, there is electronic fraud, but that I believe is more in the short term than in the long term.

As an e-payment firm, what have you done to reduce the spate of e-frauds?

As a wholly Nigerian-developed product, we knew from day one that a lot of ambitious people will want to hack into our system. We have built a lot of defence mechanisms from day one. Maybe there might have been some attempts, but none of them has crystallised. We thank God that till date, none has been successful. This is why players in this industry always put security first. So, we put security first and we are always one step ahead of the hackers. They are there. People should not be discouraged by it. The point is that the level of fraud is still very low across the economy. For nine years, we have never had any case of hacking. This is why we host our system in the same company IBM and other big firms do theirs. Also, we always have our systems checked regularly by independent consultants.

In terms of adoption of cashless Nigeria drive, the CBN has tried but we must keep the message going. I know people always talk about the challenge of infrastructure. In Remita, we allow payments in all the platforms including mobile and internet banking. It is meant to help people in all the cities and interiors.

Declining crude oil prices have affected Nigeria’s revenue. The Federal Government is looking to boost revenue from tax collection. How can technology help in this regard?

The truth is that many times we judge people that they do not want to pay taxes. However, the truth of the matter is that if the payment process is too cumbersome, some people who want to pay would just end up not paying because they would be carried away by something else. By making it easier for people to pay, it is expected that the collection would improve. Now, you have a 24-hour arrangement to pay through technology. There is no need saying the managing director is out of town and he would not return until next week. You do not need those excuses again. It is now easier to pay from your home, from your offices and from your mobile devices. Therefore, it is expected that the total collections would grow.

The Federal Inland Revenue Service recently partnered with your company to introduce electronic filing system for remitting taxes. What are your expectations from the e-filing scheme?

My expectation is that the taxpayers now know that there are electronic options for them to begin to make tax payments. They may file electronically and effect their payments. They do not necessarily need to go to a bank branch again and they need not move from one bank’s internet banking to another’s again. Log into Remita and make payment from anywhere.

What really does e-filing imply to the taxpayers?

Well before now, the FIRS has been collecting tax reports manually. They have now created a platform for organisations to be able to file electronically. Now, when you submit your documents into their portal, you will get a reference called document number. You will take that document number to your Remita platform, to make payments and your payments leave your bank account and goes to the FIRS account; you get an acknowledgement and you have proper records of the taxes you have paid.

What exactly is the role of Remita in this scheme?

Remita is a payment engine. Now, a number of organisations today already use Remita to pay vendors, to pay salaries, pension fund administrators and different types of payments. Now, they are able to make tax payments to FIRS. When they pay through the platform, they do not need to submit any document again because we are integrated at the back to FIRS. Therefore, we submit the data that organisation has provided to the FIRS, in addition to moving money to the FIRS. However, does e-filing means that the manual way of paying tax in the country will no longer be in existence? Well, I believe it is going to happen gradually because not all the FIRS offices have been converted. They are doing them in phases. There will be a period of transition, but ultimately the idea is that it goes to a paperless filing arrangement.

There is e-filing and e-payment, are both accessible through the Remita?

Remita is an e-payment platform. It is expected that you must have done your e-filing to collect your reference. When you come to Remita, we will now interrogate the FIRS platform to bring out all your information, and then you make your payment.

What is the relationship between application and the banks?

Now, when customers register on Remita, they fill an application form to their banks. It is their banks that actually register them on the platform. It is a multi-bank platform, so customers come on the platform and put in all their bank accounts. When it is time for them to make any payment, they just select which account they want to fund from. It need not be tied to any particular bank. You may have accounts with different banks. Therefore, you just select the one you want to fund from at that point in time and it goes through the internal approval rule of that organisation.

The process of the e-filing seems to be very long. Will that not discourage an average individual?

For e-filing, we can say that this is the first version of the product. With the first version of the product coming out, there would be some lessons learnt and in the not too distance future, we would expect some improvements. But for clients on Remita, what we have done is to create a simple access point for them to be able to make all their payments and save themselves some cumbersome processes. So, like I said earlier, things may not be perfect, but they will improve with time.

What specific value has your software added to the e-payment space?

Our software is an electronic platform for payment and collection. What we have tried to do is to connect to all the banks to safe the customers the trouble of logging to different websites. What you need to do is to hook up to Remita and you have access to all your banks in Nigeria. That means you can have your bank balances on one single screen and have a total of all your balances across all banks. No need to log in to different banks to monitor what is happening.

From this same platform, you can make payment to all your customers irrespective of where they have their bank accounts – micro-financial banks, commercial banks or mobile wallet. That’s something you can do on Remita. On the same platform, you can power your customers to pay you electronically very easily. This they can do by using debit or credit cards or internet banking. Irrespective of how they pay you, you have a single report that covers what they’ve paid for, including any information you require from anybody who wants to make payment to you.