Here's how it happened. I knew I was going to pick up some stuff at the store, and I'd made a mental note to withdraw some money at the nearby ATM. I was in a bus, scrolling through Twitter at the time. I got taken past my stop because I wasn't paying attention, and had to walk back. The store was closer to where I got off than the ATM, so I went there directly, and rather absent-mindedly. It wasn't until I was done shopping and was about to proceed to checkout that I realised that I didn't have enough cash, having omitted to visit the ATM like I'd planned to.
So here I was in this potentially embarrassing situation. I've gathered a bunch of stuff that I couldn't pay for. Sure, I could leave them and go get the money, but thought of returning everything to the shelves just felt weird. As I was absently feeling my pockets, like we're wont to when we're looking for money that isn't there, my hand fell on my GTBank debit card, and I experienced one of those lightbulb moments.
So here I was in this potentially embarrassing situation. I've gathered a bunch of stuff that I couldn't pay for. Sure, I could leave them and go get the money, but thought of returning everything to the shelves just felt weird. As I was absently feeling my pockets, like we're wont to when we're looking for money that isn't there, my hand fell on my GTBank debit card, and I experienced one of those lightbulb moments.
I vaguely remembered seeing a POS terminal at the cashier's from previous visits. A quick check confirmed that the POS terminal was indeed there and functional. I tendered my card. The payment process itself was painless, much easier than with an ATM even. A few seconds later, my stuff was paid for. I had finally done a POS transaction for the first time, and it actually worked.
So now I got to thinking. I'm obviously no luddite. I like to think that while I might not exactly be on the geeky, freaky, bleeding edge of tech, I'm reasonably on top of stuff. I do all my foreign and local financial transactions online whenever I can get away with it. So how come I haven't used this yet? Why the generally anemic levels of adoption? I mean, like everything it needs to work is in place, why don't more people use this?
So now I got to thinking. I'm obviously no luddite. I like to think that while I might not exactly be on the geeky, freaky, bleeding edge of tech, I'm reasonably on top of stuff. I do all my foreign and local financial transactions online whenever I can get away with it. So how come I haven't used this yet? Why the generally anemic levels of adoption? I mean, like everything it needs to work is in place, why don't more people use this?
On the buyer side, most people within the banked population are already equipped to use ePOS. I don't have any numbers, but we know anecdotally that most Nigerians with bank accounts also have ATM/debit cards. The term "ATM card" is actually a misnomer, making it seem like the card's sole purpose is to be used at an automatic teller machine, whereas they can be used for all sorts of other things including online payments AND point of sale transactions.
On the merchant side, there's been a bit of early enthusiasm. The commencement of the Lagos pilot phase of the CBN's cash-less society initiative brought the total number of registered POS terminals to over 150,000. Personally, I've seen enough of them in the wild, at giant super malls, retail kiosks and even in the hands of e-commerce dispatch riders to know that the devices are out there.
However, it would seem that the early enthusiasm has since fizzled out. In its place, there's mostly skepticism and distrust borne out of bad experiences. From what we've heard, the technology is often crippled by poor network quality, and the terminals have largely fallen into disuse, usually after a few ugly episodes with angry customers over failed transactions, and sometimes, money gone missing.
However, it would seem that the early enthusiasm has since fizzled out. In its place, there's mostly skepticism and distrust borne out of bad experiences. From what we've heard, the technology is often crippled by poor network quality, and the terminals have largely fallen into disuse, usually after a few ugly episodes with angry customers over failed transactions, and sometimes, money gone missing.
There are cards. There are payment terminals. But it appears that problems of infrastructure will be the ultimate bane of what should rightly be a game changing payment medium. Buyers say they don't see the POS terminals on display. Merchants say the terminals aren't on display because they don't work. The payments terminal service providers say the terminals don't work because of poor network quality. The network providers point to the cost of generating power, maintaining communications infrastructure and the recent activities of vandals. At this stage, the only person left to point to is the government...but by now, most people have given up and gone home.
The widespread use of electronic point of sale transactions is one of the most visible bases that need to be touched in the execution of the Central Bank's cash-less society roadmap, its success is key to the sustainability and scalability of the overall initiative. One has to wonder how far they'll be able to go if ePOS fails to achieve any sort of momentum.
Call me a latecomer if you will, but considering that I write about stuff like this, I'm glad that I finally got to do an actual POS transaction, so I can talk about it from a user's perspective. It took getting into a potentially sticky situation before the utility of POS terminals became obvious to me, but now I know. ePOS is great -- when it works. Which is why it's kind of sad that dodgy infrastructure ruins the experience for most. For all I know, my experience with it could have been a lucky fluke, and I did it fully expecting some glitch to come up. As it turned it, it worked flawlessly for me the first time. Will I be that lucky the next time? Well, we won't know until I try it again.
Have you used point of sale terminals to to pay for stuff? How did it go? If you don't, why not?
[images via Flickr/Iain Tait, Beth Jusino ]
Have you used point of sale terminals to to pay for stuff? How did it go? If you don't, why not?
[images via Flickr/Iain Tait, Beth Jusino ]
About the author.
"My name is Bankole. For some reason, people call me Lordbanks. Stay with me for practical, no frills, hard-hitting, in your face African tech talk. Follow me on Twitter here."
