Benin Electric now Live on Servpay.ng

In the bid to expand operation and reach more Nigerians, Servpay has added to her collection Benin Electric Distribution Company (BEDC).

Customers can now make BEDC Postpaid and Prepaid electric bill payments on servpay.ng.

BEDC is one of the largest DISCOS in Nigeria and responsible for retail distribution of electricity in Delta, Edo, Ekiti and Ondo States with geographical coverage of 55,770 square kilometers.

Utility bills mostly form a chonk of total daily or montly income of individuals. Servpay.ng is committed to affordable and seamless way of making bills payment.

Nigeria- How to Deposit Old N1000, N500 and N200 Notes

CBN

Nigeria is currently undergoing a critical financial reform. The President and the Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) had concluded plans and implemented currency change and swap programs.

The new currency change Policy had taken everyone by surprise but with much more polical implications.

The past 8 years in Nigeria, the currency in the economy had risen from N1.4 trillion to N3.23 trillion. The proportion of currency outside the banks grew from 78% in 2015 to 85% in 2022. As at October 2022, only N500 billion was within the Banking System while N2.7 trillion remained permanently outside the system; this development poses a great threat to the economic growth.

The CBN has therefore commenced the processes of absorbing the old currency notes of N200, N500 and N1000 with clear directives to concerned individuals.

The following are the required steps to deposit the old Naira Note:

  1. Create profile on https://crs.cbn.gov.ng/.
  2. Generate Reference and Print Out receipts
  3. Visit the selected bank branch with printed receipt to deposit your old N1000, N500 and N200 notes
    into your bank account.

Deposit above N500,000 will only be made at any of the CBN branches in the country.

While the N500 and N1000 notes have been declared a Non Legal Tender, the old N200 banknotes is expected to circulate as legal tender till April 10, 2023.

Bill Payment Regulation in Nigeria

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) under Sections 2(d), 33 (1) (b) and 47(2) of the CBN Act 2007 issued the regulation for Bill Payments in Nigeria, 2017 to promote sound financial system.

The guidelines are primarily to facilitate the development of an efficient and effective payments system in Nigeria.

The CBN have established and defined key players in bill payment policy to help achieve her objectives. The following are the stakeholders:

Payer – the individual or corporate entity making a bill payment.

Biller – a registered entity/merchant that receives funds from the payer as consideration for the provision of service or product.

Payer’s Bank – the bank where the payer maintains the account that is debited to make the bill payment.

Biller’s Bank – the bank where the Biller maintains the account designated to receive proceeds of payment made by the payer.

Payments Service Provider (PSP) – a person licensed by the Central Bank of Nigeria to provide services involving direct interactions with the payment, settlement and clearing systems and payment system arrangements, as the Bank may authorize from time to time and may include a bank, Mobile Money Operators or Other Financial Institution that is connected directly to a Biller without any service intermediary.

The Bill Payment regulation has opened up the digital space in Nigeria. Before now, typical payment for services like electricity, water, airtime, cable TV are often done physically. Individuals would visit physical outlets of the service providers to make payment.

The CBN regulation have opened up opportunities to all the players in the industry:

Pros

  1. Efficient Collection by Service Providers. For example, The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) revealed collection of Power Distribution Companies (Discos) in Nigeria for 2022.
    “The total revenue collected by all Discos in 2022/Q2 was N188.29 billion out of N265.68 billion billed to customers. This corresponds to a collection efficiency of 70.87 per cent which represents 1.53 pp increase compared to 2022/Q1 where the average collection efficiency was 69.34 per cent,” the report stated.Collection efficiency is an indicator of the proportion of the amount that has been collected from customers relative to the amount billed to them by the Discos”
  2. Seamless Mode of Payment. It has become easier and faster for Payer to make payments for services. Fintech companies,Banks and even the Telcos have good platforms on PC’s or mobile devices where bill payments are being made.
  3. Cheaper Mode of Payment. Due to the competitive business environment created by the CBN, Payers can now access incentives for bill payments. For example, Servpay.ng offers very competitive bonuses for every transaction Payers carry out on their platforms. They also offer Reffer and Win promo. These and many more are the benefits from the CBN regulation.
  4. Employment Opportunities. This regulation have created millions of employment for Nigeria youths. It has created bigger players in the industry which in turn have employed professionals to join their team.

Cons

A. Network Availability. Unstable payment network poses a major concern in the industry. The service providers or the Billers must continually increase their capacities to handle high traffic as Payers engagement increases.

B. Cyber Crime Vulnerability. In Africa, the cybercrimes has recorded a massive rise in the first six months of 2022, “with phishing and scams hitting 438 per cent and 174 per cent in Kenya and Nigeria, respectively”, the Guardian Newspapers. reported on August 3, 2022.

According to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, ” over 2,800 persons convicted of cybercrime in 2022″

Overall, the financial sector in Nigeria is fast developing with lots of prospects for investors

Starlink now Live in Nigeria 🇳🇬

Starlink is a satellite internet constellation founded by Elon Musk and operated by SpaceX.

Starlink which now covers all the seven continents in the world provides Satellite Internet access coverage to about 47 countries but still planning to expand to other countries. Starlink is also aiming for global mobile phone service after 2023.

SpaceX launched Starlink satellites in 2019 but as at December 2022, Starlink has done over 3,300 mass-produced small satellites in low Earth orbit (LEO), which communicate with designated ground transceivers.

SpaceX tweeted on the 30th of January 2023

Starlink is now available in Nigeria- the first Africa country to receive service!

being an official announcement of Starlink kick off in Nigeria.

How to Place an Order for Starlink

To place an order for Starlink internet hardware from Nigeria, kindly visit starlink.com and select Nigeria as service address.

According to Starlink, customers in Nigeria typically see download speeds of 50-200 Mbps. No contracts, 30-day trial.

The company also stated that shipping period is estimated to be 2-4 weeks from order.

Cost to acquire a Starlink hardware in Nigeria is N268,584 with N19,260 monthly subscription. Payment can be made in Naira and National Identification Number (NIN) will be required to complete payment.

According to the reports from the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), there are about 154,847,901 internet subscribers in Nigeria as at December 2022. Mobile data users made up about 154,277,373 which is 99.6% of all internet users in Nigeria.

At the moment, mobile Telecommunication Operator’s in Nigeria are currently battling with high inflation rate, high cost of operation and congestion on their network hence emergence of Starlink in Nigeria would be a relief to many heavy internet users in Nigeria.

From the available statistics, the industry is still viable for satellite internet companies to explore but they must be able to compete in terms of download speeds and service pricing.