The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Verve

  • Verve, GhIPSS partner on EMV cards

    Verve International has announced its partnership with Ghana Interbank Payment and Settlement Systems Limited (GhIPSS) for wider acceptance of Verve EMV cards and payment tokens in Ghana.

    The partnership will allow Verve’s about 37 million customers with its payment cards and tokens withdraw cash on ATMs and make purchases on PoS terminals of GhIPSS partner commercial banks, savings and loans institutions, e-zwich agents and merchant aggregators in Ghana.

    Commenting on the partnership, CEO, Verve International, Mike Ogbalu III said: “Verve is committed to Bank of Ghana’s drive to grow secured electronic payments and deepen financial inclusion in Ghana.  This is in line with Verve’s goal of providing seamless, borderless payment solutions to facilitate intra-Africa trade and financial exchange, in partnership with processors, domestic and regional switches, merchants, merchant aggregators, fintech companies and government institutions. This partnership with GhIPSS is a major leap forward in achieving this goal.

    Also commenting on the partnership, CEO GhIPSS, Archie Hesse, said “this partnership marks an important first step in our relations with International Schemes. We share Verve’s vision for intra-African Trade and are happy to be an enabler in that regard. Our role at GhIPSS is to facilitate interconnections that drive frictionless payment experiences for individuals, and businesses alike. The partnership with Verve is just the start of many of such collaborations we intend to pursue going forward.”

    Mike further stated that this move demonstrates Verve’s commitment to deploying convenient services to its customers and support cashless initiatives across Africa. The partnership with GhIPSS is a continuation of Verve’s strategic alliances with key institutions in Africa and around the world.

    Verve also made an entry into East Africa with its launch in Kenya in 2015, which led to current partnership with 12 Kenyan banks, enabling the acceptance of Verve cards and tokens on 3,000 PoS, 1,300 ATMs and 12,000 Agent Outlets in Kenya. It is expected that more of such partnerships will be announced in the future.

  • Verve launches revolutionary mobile app

    Verve launches revolutionary mobile app

    Verve International, the leading African payment card brand, has launched a revolutionary mobile app, ‘Verve World’, which enables cardholders to store all their payment options and to carry out everyday transactions without physically using their cards.

    This innovation was unveiled to stakeholders at an event on Wednesday, last week at the Four Points by Sheraton, Victoria Island, Lagos.

    Users are able to store payment instruments from all major card brands in Nigeria.  In addition to debit, credit and prepaid cards, and Verve eCash, bank accounts can also be added to the app.

    The app features ‘Paycode’, Verve’s latest innovation.  Users of the Verve World app can generate a ‘Verve Paycode’, a unique one-time code valid for 24 hours, which can be used to withdraw cash from an ATM machine without a card.  The Verve Paycode can be sent to a loved one or friend to withdraw a pre-set amount of money from most ATMs in the country.

    Verve Paycode is the latest in a string of initiatives and partnerships as Verve International continues to innovate and consolidate its leading position in payment transactions and services across Africa.  The service opens a new range of possibilities for users and also offers a new level of security as cardholders can still carry out regular transactions as usual without the need to move around with a physical wallet.

    Other services available on the Verve World app include: Verve eCash funding; quick recharge transactions; Verve Rewards balance check; and enabling or disabling cards from performing international transactions.

    Speaking at a stakeholder engagement event held in Victoria Island, Lagos, Chief Executive Officer of Verve International, Charles Ifedi, commented:

    “The Verve World app has been tailored specifically for the African market and is an example of how, here at Verve International, we continue to push the boundaries of technological innovation to address local payment challenges. We continue to see growing demand from our cardholders for easy, secure and convenient payment methods irrespective of the payment instrument being used. Therefore we designed the app to address the need for urgent access to cash without a card, through Verve Paycode, (a key feature in the APP) which can also be generated and sent to friends and family for cardlesswithdrawal at ATMs.”

    Cardless transactions can be initiated at an ATM without inserting a card.  This is done by pressing any button on ATMs enabled with ‘QuicktellerCardless’.  Fidelity Bank, Stanbic IBTC Bank, Heritage Bank, Zenith bank, FCMB and GTBank have all upgraded their ATMs with this functionality.

    ATMs belonging to UBA, Sterling Bank, Access Bank, Skye Bank, Unity Bank, Ecobank and WEMA Bank are being upgraded and would have the service available in a few weeks.  As such, there are currently over 5,000 ATMs across Nigeria where Verve Paycode can be used, and this would rise to over 11,000 ATMs by the end of 2015, when the upgrades for the above listed banks would have been completed.

     

     

  • Verve unveils new campaign on Africa business

    Verve unveils new campaign on Africa business

    Determined to promote and celebrate Africa’s heritage and promote homegrown entrepreneurs and businesses, Verve International (‘Verve’), a homegrown pan-African payment card brand, has launched ‘Verve, Truly African’-a new platform to celebrate Africans.

    At the unveiling of the campaign in Lagos, recently, the Chief Executive Officer, Verve International, Charles Ifedi, said  over the next three months, Verve will celebrate everything that makes Africa great, and give Africans the opportunity to showcase to the world their unique talent, skills and ideas.

    Part of the event slated for the campaign include: Verve sponsorship of the African Magic Movies Choice Awards (AMVCA), the launch of a new TV commercial, and a social media campaign that asks Africans to tell the world about their aspirations and what it means to be African today.

    “At Verve our vision is to create a totally interconnected continent where all Africans can feel the benefit and take advantage of rapid economic expansion and increasing prosperity.

    “ More and more African entrepreneurs and homegrown businesses are showing the world that they have the skills, creativity, and determination to take on some of the biggest international businesses. Through this campaign we will be giving Africans everywhere the opportunity to showcase their unique talent,” said Ifedi.

    Also, the Chief Marketing Officer, Interswitch Cherry Eromosele said:”We are thrilled to unveil our new ‘Truly African’ campaign to celebrate everything that makes Africa a vibrant and exciting place to be.  Africans, he noted, are using their heritage and identity to build businesses that are truly African in their outlook and provide services highly tailored for tAfrican consumers.

    “At Verve we have created a brand that represents the values and aspirations of Africans everywhere, and this is the essence of this campaign: to capture and celebrate the unique attributes of Africans.

    “As the homegrown payment card that supports millions of direct and indirect jobs across the continent, every transaction made with a Verve card is an investment in Africa’s future.”

    Verve is an African payment solutions company. Part of the company’s offer is a pan-African chip + PIN payment card. The Verve card is the leading payment card brand in Nigeria, with over 14 million cards in active use, significantly more than any other provider.

  • Loyalty reward for UBA Verve cardholders

    UNITED Bank for Africa (UBA) Plc in partnership with Verve International has launched an offer tagged: ‘UBA Verve Rewards’ in which cardholders could win e-cash, free airtime, Nokia mobile phones and up to N35,000 cash.

    Speaking on the promotion, Mr. Charles Ifedi, CEO, Verve International, expressed his delight in partnering with UBA to reward new and old Verve cardholders.

    “As Nigeria’s leading payment card brand we are always looking for ways to improve our offer and encourage card pick-up and usage so that everyone can benefit from a cashless society” he said.

    He also promised that UBA Verve cardholders will benefit from exciting gifts by activating and using their cards across all channels.

    “Cardholders can use their Verve cards to make payments securely in-store at POS terminals, online and on mobile, and at ATMs across the country. The reward scheme is primarily to encourage the use of the Verve Debit Card for local or domestic web and POS payments and also VAS (value added service) transactions on the ATM,” he explained.

    Dr. Yinka Adedeji, Divisional Head, e-Banking assured UBA customers that using UBA Verve Cards is safe and secure.

    “UBA Verve Debit Card is protected with best in its class technology for online and offline security. It is fortified with the One Time Password (OTP) advanced security feature for online transactions” he said.

    Dr. Adedeji explained that “UBA Verve cardholders can also access a selection of offers and experiences ranging from cash back to instant discounts, vouchers among others through the Verve reward scheme powered by Verve International and supported by various reward partners”

    Cardholders, who use their UBA issued Verve cards to initiate a minimum of five POS or VAS (value added service) transactions on the ATM worth N1, 000 or more, would stand a chance to win N1,000 airtime.

    Cardholders, who do transactions worth N2,000 or more on these channels stand a chance to win N3, 000 airtime plus mobile phones.

    Value added Services (VAS) on an ATM is when UBA customers use the ATM to pay for transactions like phone bills, cable TV bills or transfer funds from their UBA bank account to another.

    Also a minimum of 40 customers, who on a monthly basis, initiate a minimum of five POS transactions or Web transactions valued at a minimum of N10, 000 or more would win N5, 000 top up on their e-cash account.

    A grand reward of monthly cash back of N35,000 for will be won by 10 cardholders who initiate transactions at any Verve Reward Merchant location valued at a minimum of N2, 000 or more.

    The promotion has created excitement among UBA customers with many of them using or reactivating their Verve Cards to stand a chance of winning the attractive prizes on offer.

    Verve is a home grown African payment card used by millions of Nigerians daily for payment for goods and services.

    UBA, with more than seven million retail customers, is a major issuer of payment cards in the country. The bank issues Verve Card, MasterCard, Visa cards. UBA also pioneered the issue of prepaid cards in the country, which can be used without a bank account.

    UBA’s innovation in the e-banking space recently earned it the distinction of being named ‘Best Transaction Bank from Africa’ by UK based ‘The Banker Magazine’ and is also nominated for the ‘Card Innovation Bank of the Year’ in the forthcoming Nigerian Telecom Awards

    The UBA Group is a highly diversified financial services provider, one of the largest financial institutions in Africa, with business offices in New York and Paris and a subsidiary in London. The bank controls significant market share in 19 different African countries.

     

  • Interswitch creates holding company to drive regional and international growth

    Interswitch creates holding company to drive regional and international growth

    Interswitch, a pan-African integrated payment processing and transaction switching company, has announced the spin-off, of two of its core divisions: Verve International (“Verve”) and Switching and Processing, as separate, autonomous businesses.

    In a statement by the Interswitch, the company said the rationale for separation is driven by the company’s strategy to orchestrate the next stage of sustainable growth through empowering the various line businesses to broaden and deepen their solution and service offerings to better serve their customers across Africa.

    Separation, they stressed, will enable Verve to leverage, to the maximum extent, its recent strategic alliance with the ‘Discover’ network, providing new business opportunities in over 185 countries around the world.

    The change also brings Interswitch’s corporate structure into line with the guidelines of the Payment Systems Vision 2020 of the Central Bank of Nigeria (“CBN”), Verve International and Interswitch Switching and Processing to have separate management teams.

    Verve International is to be led by Mr. Charles Ifedi, while Interswitch Switching and Processing will be managed by Mr. Akeem Lawal.

    Mr. Mitchell Elegbe, Group Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Interswitch Transnational Holdings commented: “It has always been our desire to evolve into an integrated payments holding business where the various parts of the business are driven to deepen and broaden their relationships with their various customers by creating innovative products and services of real value. Creating the right governance structure to herald this new phase of sustainable growth has been the focus of the board and management in the last few months. I am elated that we have successfully completed this separation, which took effect from April 1st 2013.”