Owoseni: Cutting-edge Technology Will Revolutionise Payment System

The Chief Executive Officer of QorePay, Mr. Josh Owoseni, speaks on the role of Fintech companies in driving financial inclusion, the recent launch of QorePay Gateway Payment platform, and how the solution will revolutionise payment system among Nigerian businesses. Emma Okonji presents the excerpts:    

What is your role as a Fintech company in the payment space, and what distinguishes QorePay from other Fintech companies operating in the same payment space in Nigeria?

As a Fintech company, our focus is to revolutionise payment process for businesses in Nigeria.  We have a cutting-edge technology we are bringing to the market and our approach to the payment market space is unique, which actually distinguishes QorePay from other payment solution companies. Our unique payment solution is built around simplicity, convenience, with focus on advanced technology and security. We have a unique dashboard that is data driven and allows for data analytics, driven by strong insights into businesses. As a Fintech company, we are committed to support the financial inclusion drive of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to enhance financial capability among businesses.

QorePlay recently launched its payment solution in Nigeria. What market challenges does QorePay seek to address with such launch?

The launch of our payment gateway solution in Nigeria some few weeks ago, was meant to address the observed challenges in the Nigerian payment space. The existing payment systems in Nigeria are cumbersome and time consuming, and they are quite expensive for businesses, especially for small businesses in the country. So our solution was designed to address these identified challenges in the most seamless way. Our solution is highly secured and affordable for businesses. Giving the growing market for mobile phone devices in Nigeria, our solution is highly simplified for making and collecting payments. One of the solutions, called ‘Tap on Phone’ allows users to collect payments via their mobile phones, which will be a clear deviation from using Point of Sales (PoS) machines for financial transactions, thus, reducing the cost of purchasing PoS terminals. Our solution is designed to empower businesses of all sizes from small startup firms to large and enterprise businesses. Our solution is built to leverage technology for financial inclusion. Our solution helps businesses to understand when the business is making the highest sales at its peak hour and when it is making the least sales. It also helps businesses to have a clear vision of the geographical locations where sales are high and low, a situation that can help businesses to understand the inflow of cash and how best to improve market strategies. Our technology is built on a Blockchain technology that further fortifies the security system of our platform. Our technology is also built on Artificial Intelligence (AI) that offers high level intelligence to the operations of the solution.

Financial leakages persist within organisations, which tend to run businesses out of market. How is QorePay solution designed to block financial leakages in organisations?

Our solutions are designed to protect small and large enterprises from financial leakages in the system, irrespective of whether the business has a website or not. To address financial leakages in organisations, we designed an easy to use dashboard that businesses can leverage to enhance transparency in all financial transactions carried out on the platform. On the dashboard, there is a payment link that clearly defines recurrent, invoicing solutions, including an Application Programming Interface (API) solution that allows for easy payments. The fact is that the Nigerian payment market is crowded, but our solution distinguishes us from the others in the market, because our solution is easy to use by businesses of all sizes. Again, the solution is very affordable and our customer care support is live 24/7.

How long has QorePay been operating before the launch in Nigeria and what new development is the Fintech company bringing to the Nigerian market?

QorePay was launched into the Nigerian market few weeks ago, but we have been in operation for quite some time now, providing services to businesses in the United States of America. QorePay is an international company that started operations in the United States of America, some years ago. As a Fintech company, we are focused on simplicity and secured network. Our cutting-edge technology stands us out from other solution providers. Our solution allows for self-regulation, using our dashboard solution that is built with AI technology. Our solution is very fast by leveraging on smartphone devices for collection of payments. We built our solution on Blockchain technology to address high level insecurity in the payment system.

How will you describe the financial inclusion drive of the Central Bank of Nigeria and how will QorePay contribute to Nigeria’s financial inclusion drive?

As a Fintech company, we understand the importance of data security in the financial service industry. We are therefore keen at simplifying payment system in Nigeria and ensure that customers’ money is safe always, because we carry out end-to-end data encryption by using industry standard encryption protocol to ensure that all data stored and transmitted on our platform, are confidential, inaccessible to unauthorised persons, by way of ensuring high level security. We are able to flag down fraudulent activities before they occur. We also leverage on compliance solution in order to adhere to data security and protection and ensure that these are maintained always. We constantly look into the environment, audit it and provide adequate solution for businesses operating in the environment.

What level of Blockchain technology and AI are embedded in your solution and how have they helped in addressing fraud and insecurity in business?

Blockchain technology and AI are fully embedded into our solution that we are bringing into the Nigerian payment space, and the Blockchain technology in itself, leverages on algorithms and also addresses issues of fraud. For any financial organisation, fraud detection is one key area it must pay attention to. So our solution ensures data security. With the embedded Blockchain technology, fraud can be easily detected early enough to prevent it from happening. Again we update the Blockchain technology in order to understand new patterns of fraud in the system. So our Blockchain technology is a fraud detection solution and also a fraud prevention solution, while the AI is basically used for monitoring and detecting fraud at any level. Our solution has different levels of authiorisation to ensure that fraud is detected early enough and prevented from escalating.

Since your solution addresses identified challenges in both large and small businesses, how easy it is for your customers to navigate different platforms, using your solution?

Our solution is designed to allow for easy use and navigation. It is designed with the concept of simplicity and user-friendly for even those that are not tech-savvy Customers can easily go online, log into our payment gateway dashboard and be able to navigate through. For the enterprise business that wants to integrate their websites to the API, they will find it easy to do because our API documentation is easily readable and easy to follow. QorePay is focused on supporting businesses in Lagos and across Nigerian cities. 

Having launched in Lagos, what are your expansion plans outside of Lagos and to other African countries?

Yes we have launched our solution in Nigeria, Lagos precisely, but we are not stopping in Lagos, because we have plans to expand beyond Lagos and into other  African countries where our solution will be of great importance to businesses in those regions. Our goal is to support over 50,000 businesses across Nigeria within the next one year. We are also not limiting ourselves to Nigeria alone, as we also have plans to expand to some of the African countries, where our solution will be of immense importance in driving their businesses to profitability.

How will your solution key into the federal government’s plan on job creation among Nigerian youths?

The focus of most businesses like QorePay, is to leverage on technology to provide solutions that will create jobs in line with the federal government’s initiative to boost job creation among Nigerian youths.  

How will you describe Nigeria’s adoption rate of emerging technologies and how have these technologies helped in driving digital transformation of the Nigerian economy?

Nigeria is adopting emerging technologies at a very fast rate, which for us, is commendable. I was opportune to attend the CEO’s Forum in Nigeria, and the focus was about encouraging more Nigerians to adopt and implement new technologies, especially emerging technologies. Businesses on their own, are keen at digitising businesses at all levels, with a bigger plans to digitise the entire Nigerian economy. These are evident with the high penetration of broadband internet and mobile devices in the Nigerian market.

How compliant is QorePay with regulations around payments and financial transactions and the CBN regulatory sandbox?

QorePay is highly compliant with all regulations around payment in Nigeria and we are in partnership with players within the payment ecosystem to ensure full regulatory compliance. We are currently integrating with financial institutions to expand our customer-base solution. QorePay is not working outside of the CBN regulation on payment transactions, as we follow due diligence and processes that are required for us to be able to transact businesses in the country.   

How will you describe Fintech growth in Nigeria and their impact on the Nigerian economy?

From the United States of America, where QorePay is coming from, the Fintech industry is growing fast and contributing to the growth of the US economy. In Nigeria, it the same thing, as we have over a million Fintech companies developing solutions for businesses and contributing to Nigeria’s GDP growth. Although the Fintech industry is crowded but it is still open to accommodate more Fintechs because the market is vibrant and has not attained its full capacity.

Tell us more about QorePay Technology Solutions and how it is positioned to revolutionise Nigerian businesses?

QorePay Technology Solution is a Fintech company that is focused on how to enhance businesses to understand how well they are performing, and how they can improve on their growth strategies. The solution enables users to make informed decisions on their businesses. The focus is to make businesses as easy as possible to manage, using different links that we have simplified. 

How will you respond to the recent CBN’s policy on Fintech companies and payment solution companies?

QorePay is a Fintech company and a payment gateway that helps businesses to collect payments We do not operate virtual wallet system that does B2B. While other Fintech companies operate the peer-to-peer system by sending money from one location to another, QorePay is focused on using its payment gateway to help businesses collect and process money in a most transparent way. And we provide options for businesses to choose the kind of payment options they want. Aside payment, we are also involved in cash payout. So the CBN policy did not actually affect QorePay.

Near Field Communication (NFC) technology is widely being utilised by solution providers. How are you leveraging on NFC technology to boost customer experience?

The NFC technology is an emerging technology that is fast replacing the Point of Sales (PoS) terminals, and we are considering fusing it into our solution this year 2024. Work is in progress concerning the NFC technology and we should be able to deploy it in the first quarter of 2024. We plan to infuse the NFC technology into our solution, to address all categories of businesses, both small and big businesses.