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### Viewing cable 03LAGOS524, DON'T SHOW ME THE MONEY; NIGERIA GOING

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Reference ID | Created | Released | Classification | Origin
--- | --- | --- | --- | ---
03LAGOS524 | 2003-03-12 15:15 | 2011-08-25 00:00 | UNCLASSIFIED | Consulate Lagos

`

    This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.

` `

    UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 LAGOS 000524

    SIPDIS

    E.O. 12958: N/A
    TAGS: ECON EINV EFIN NI
    SUBJECT: DON'T SHOW ME THE MONEY; NIGERIA GOING
    CASHLESS

    ¶1. SUMMARY:  As in many developing economies with high
    inflation and a devalued currency, consumers in Nigeria
    often must bring literally bags of money to the store
    to make even routine purchases.  Checks are used almost
    exclusively for business-to-business transactions, and
    credit cards are accepted almost nowhere. Recently, the
    use of pre-paid debit cards (known here as smart cards)
    has been on the rise, and marketers hope the trend will
    continue.  In fact, the U.S. Consulate General in Lagos
    recently began accepting a smart card as the exclusive
    payment method for nonimmigrant visa transactions, and
    the British High Commission has followed suit.  Two
    brands of smart cards backed by bank consortia are
    leading the market, each with its own unique market
    niche.  These novel businesses, along with others in
    the finance industry that are considering ways to bring
    revolving credit to the country, are banking on the
    radical concept that a significant part of the Nigerian
    economy may become cash-less in the coming years.  END
    SUMMARY.

    -------------------------------------
    A BAG OF MONEY FOR A BAG OF GROCERIES
    -------------------------------------

    ¶2. Nigeria remains almost exclusively a cash-based
    economy.  Checks are not used at the consumer level,
    but rather are the province of business-to-business
    transactions.  Credit cards are used almost nowhere,
    both because of fraud concerns and because revolving
    credit is not widely offered by Nigerian banks.
    Occasional ATM machines can be found, but debit cards
    are not in use.  Consumers in Nigeria must thus use
    cash for almost all transactions, whether it be the
    purchase of a bag of ground nuts from a street hawker,
    the purchase of a family's groceries in a supermarket,
    or the purchase of a used vehicle from a neighbor.
    Adding to the inconvenience, Nigeria's highest
    denomination bill is the 500 Naira note; just under
    four dollars.  Accordingly, Nigerians and expats alike
    are accustomed to carrying small sacks of cash for any
    single purchase ranging several hundred dollars or
    more, for their weekend shopping, or for any in-country
    travel.  Payday for Nigerians also commonly involves
    the transfer of small bags or bricks of cash.

    ¶3. A new and growing financial product is slowly
    changing the way Nigerians approach transactions.
    Smart cards were launched in Nigeria almost five years
    ago and are becoming increasingly available and
    accepted for use, particularly in urban areas.  Smart
    cards are reusable plastic cards containing an embedded
    computer chip that records and manages a pre-loaded
    balance of funds from which debits are deducted.
    Industry sources report that smart card technology was
    first widely utilized in France for secured access to
    buildings.  The use of a computer chip to store and
    manage data is considered less vulnerable to
    unauthorized manipulation or to information theft than
    the magnetic strips most commonly found on credit and
    debit cards and access passes in the United States.
    And while forms of disposable smart cards are used in
    Europe and elsewhere for a variety of consumer
    transactions, Paul Lawal, the Managing Director and
    Chief Executive of the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement
    System (NIBSS), told Econoff that the use of
    reloadable, chip-based smart cards for financial
    transactions is unique to Nigeria.

    ---------------------------
    THE PRODUCT AND THE PLAYERS
    ---------------------------

    ¶4. Smart cards are generally offered and administered
    by consortia of banks.  They are designed to make
    transactions easier and safer for consumers by
    providing an alternative to regularly carrying and
    producing large quantities of cash.  Smart cards are
    similar to debit cards used in the United States,
    except the card is generally not associated with
    deposits kept in an open account.  Instead, a consumer
    obtains a card at a bank and loads a sum of money onto
    it. The card carries the issuing bank's logo, and
    transactions are associated with that bank.  When the
    consumer makes a purchase at a participating vendor,
    swiping the card and entering a personal identification
    number (PIN), the vendor's card-reader debits the
    balance on the card and stores the charge.  The vendor
    periodically takes the stored data from the reader to
    the bank or other card issuer that the vendor
    contracted with to receive payment from the charges.
    The bank or issuer then settles all outstanding charges
    across the consortium through the NIBSS.  When the
    consumer spends the balance loaded onto the card, he or
    she simply reloads a new balance at the issuing bank.
    Vendors are charged a fee per transaction, usually a
    percentage of the transaction amount.  For example, the
    US Consulate General is charged 1.25 percent per
    transaction for its use of smart cards for visa
    transactions.  But banks and other card issuers make
    most of their profit from smart cards by using the
    "float" generated, that is, by earning interest on or
    investing the value of the deposits made by their
    cardholders when loading the smart cards, before
    charges are made and cleared.

    ¶5. Three companies offer smart cards in Nigeria, each
    with a unique market niche.  The current leading smart
    card brand is ValuCard, which was first introduced
    nearly five years ago and is accepted by a wide variety
    of stores and restaurants throughout Nigeria.  ValuCard
    is backed by a consortium of approximately 40 banks,
    including many of the largest and oldest in Nigeria.
    ValuCard boasts that its consortium represents 90
    percent of the country's banking system, and has over
    3,000 vendors in 50 cities nationwide.  Using software
    developed by the Irish company CardBase Technology,
    ValuCard offers perhaps the simplest but most limited
    product available, in that the card is primarily a
    reloadable payment method using a PIN, while other
    cards offer a variety of payment services and options.
    Further, the ValuCard customer can load his or her card
    only at a branch of the bank from which the card was
    issued, not from any ValuCard dealer.  However,
    ValuCard offered the first card on the market, is
    backed by the largest banks in the country and employs
    an extensive marketing campaign, making it the leading
    brand in Nigeria.  ValuCard is gradually expanding the
    capabilities of its card, but remains focused on the
    essential nature of its product.  Paul Lawal of the
    NIBSS estimates that ValuCard services 60 percent of
    the smart card market.

    ¶6. SmartPay is the second leading brand of smart card
    in Nigeria.  The U.S. company Retriever Payment Systems
    holds a 98 percent interest in SmartPay, which has been
    on the market for about three years.  SmartPay is
    backed by a consortium of over 30 banks, but most are
    medium and small banks with limited geographic focus.
    Only a few banks participate in both SmartPay and
    ValuCard.  Where ValuCard centered its development on
    consumer marketing and vendor distribution, SmartPay
    focused its initial efforts on the software it uses for
    transactions and offers a product of greater
    versatility.  In addition to a reloadable, PIN-based
    payment card, SmartPay offers a PIN-less function that
    allows consumers to give their card to others to use up
    to a relatively low-value ceiling (about $40).  For
    example drivers may purchase fuel on behalf of their
    employers without entering a PIN.  SmartPay cards can
    be reloaded at any bank in the consortia, and SmartPay
    offers debit card, ATM and credit functions to some of
    its customers. Even though the SmartPay product is more
    versatile and multifunctional than ValuCard, it has
    suffered from a lack of marketing and is only now
    attempting to garner a larger percentage of the smart
    card market through strategic partnerships such as
    foreign diplomatic mission consular services.

    ¶7. The third player in the Nigerian smart card industry
    is SecureTrust.  SecureTrust was also founded some
    three years ago by the former IT manager of ValuCard,
    after his ideas for what he felt was superior
    technology were ignored by the industry leader.  He
    focused his fledgling company's product development on
    the technology of the smart card, using product design
    and software developed by Visa and Proton Technology of
    Belgium.  SecureTrust remains a very small player; it
    is backed by only two or three banks, and is not used
    by many consumers or recognized by many vendors.

    -----------------------------------------
    NOWHERE TO GO BUT UP - A VERY LONG WAY UP
    -----------------------------------------

    ¶8. NIBSS estimates that the use of smart cards for
    financial transactions has increased roughly 30 percent
    in the last 18 months.  However, data on the size of
    the smart card market is conflicting.  While the
    Managing Director of SmartPay states that the current
    market totals only 100,000 cards, ValuCard asserts that
    by the end of 2002 it had issued 180,000 cards.
    ValuCard also claims an impressive and steady increase
    in the value of its transactions per year since 1999,
    when it recorded transactions worth 300 million Naira
    ($2.4 million). ValuCard reports that consumers used
    its card for transactions worth one billion Naira ($8
    million) in 2000, six billion Naira ($47.6 million) in
    2001, and over 16.6 billion Naira ($131.7 million) in
    ¶2002.

    ¶9. Still, according to NIBSS, 80 percent of consumer-
    level transactions involve cash transfers, and 15
    percent are paid by check, leaving smart card companies
    vying for a very small slice of Nigeria's market
    transactions.  Nonetheless, NIBSS Chief Executive Lawal
    notes a definite upward trend in the use of smart cards
    amongst the educated population, which tends to have
    more disposable income.  Along with mobile phones and
    imported clothes, Lawal observes that educated,
    professional Nigerians are using smart cards as a
    status symbol, and predicts the demand for cashless
    transactions will continue to rise amongst this
    important segment of consumers as they become
    increasingly accustomed to the use of credit and debit
    cards in the United States and Europe.  Noting this
    trend, Lawal told Econoff that financial institutions
    in Nigeria are developing plans for revolving credit
    accounts, and NIBSS is studying the telecommunications
    infrastructur requirements and improvements needed in
    the country to sustain debit card transactions.

    ¶10. The U.S. Consulate General Lagos began accepting
    ValuCard as the exclusive method of payment for
    nonimmigrant visa fees in December 2002, in addition to
    its use for occasional warehouse disposal sales and
    fees associated with the Educational Advising Center.
    Similarly, the British High Commission in Abuja
    launched a ValuCard payment system on March 4, 2003.
    Both of these developments will cause a significant
    increase in the issuance of smart cards, as each
    country's diplomatic mission in Nigeria services tens
    of thousands of applicants each year, and card issuers
    are pitching other missions to follow suit.  Smart card
    issuers also hope that the acceptance of ValuCard by
    foreign missions will translate into an increase in the
    number of vendors accepting their cards, as consumers
    across socio-economic strata become aware of the
    product and demand the service from merchants.

    ¶11. COMMENT: There are limits to going cashless in
    Nigeria.  The unofficial economy -- the street vendors,
    hawkers, and product and service providers who come to
    their customers' homes and whose marketing is
    exclusively word-of-mouth -- is a major part of the
    Nigerian economic structure and social fabric.  Until
    smart card readers are made available to these
    merchants and craftsmen, cash will remain the
    overwhelmingly predominant method of payment in
    Nigeria.  Also, Econoff has heard complaints that smart
    card readers are inoperable frequently enough that
    consumers feel the need to carry cash anyway and simply
    use their smart card where possible.

    ¶12. COMMENT CONTINUED: Nonetheless, if demand does
    continue for this product, banks may develop the
    infrastructure needed to support other products and
    services such as revolving credit accounts and debit
    transactions.  To do so would require extensive build-
    outs to Nigeria's weak telecommunications
    infrastructure, but and the rise of GSM use has made
    land-line repair and expansion a low priority. Before
    credit and debit become widely used, Nigeria will
    require further anti-fraud advances, both in prevention
    and prosecution.  Today, even where credit cards are
    accepted, mostly in a few hotels in Abuja and Lagos,
    most residents and visitors to Nigeria dislike using
    them for fear of financial crime.  If security
    improves, increased electronic transfers of funds could
    help reduce petty corruption and embezzlement because
    less cash would change hands, and law enforcement could
    better monitor and trace transactions.

    ¶13. COMMENT CONTINUED: In the meantime, smart card
    companies may continue to see large increases in the
    value of transactions.  Even if the number of
    transactions or cards issued remains relatively limited
    in scope or grows flat, more people will use cards for
    big-ticket items like vehicle purchases.  Any
    significant or prolonged currency depreciation should
    make smart cards even more attractive to consumers.
    Ultimately, like most business opportunities in
    Nigeria, there is money to be made in the smart card
    and related services industry, if companies accept the
    challenges of weak infrastructure and vulnerable
    security.  END COMMENT.

    HINSON-JONES

`