Over the weekend, we ran a sample poll on twitter asking what mode of payment Nigerians will prefer. The poll which started during the Africabeta event that saw both payment solution platforms and merchants attend the event ran for 24 hours, after which the result revealed that Pay on Delivery is still Nigeria's most popular choice of payment.
How will you like to pay? #africabeta
— Techpoint.ng (@Techpointdotng) January 30, 2016
The poll also showed that 32% of voters are comfortable with using their payment cards (Visa, Verve, Mastercard) to pay for services and goods while 9% of voters chose mobile money as their preferred payment method. The poll reflects most of the comments I have gotten from offline folks that they will prefer to pay on delivery just to be sure that the goods ordered online are delivered in good condition before making payments. This is in spite of the major pain Pay on Delivery has been on the merchant side.
Payment platforms should make payment and refund a seamless process for users #Africabeta — Techpoint.ng (@Techpointdotng) January 30, 2016
Trust is like money and its difficult to get. Looking forward we need to take steps to get it #paraphrased - @joyce #AfricaBeta
— Techpoint.ng (@Techpointdotng) January 30, 2016
The bottleneck really is trust and as Joyce Kim of Stellar rightly said, getting Nigerians to trust the system is one key thing that payment solution providers should improve on in 2016.
If you feel left out of the voting process, you can voice your opinion in the comment section below. Do you shop online? If yes, what is your preferred mode of payment?