10 | The Lion King
Feature
U-Bills (
) is an-
other of the e-platforms recently set up
by UBA to facilitate e-Commerce trans-
actions. This is an online bill payment
solution that enables customers to pay
for various services including: mobile
top-up, utility bills, school fees, cable TV
and many more. U-Bills takes advan-
tage of the difficulty with payment
for services between customers and
merchants whereby customers have to
travel down to store locations in order
to make payment.
U-Bills provides a streamlined solution by
integrating itself into the merchants sys-
tems, this way transactions are done in
real-time and customers get immediate
notification for these transactions.
To aid smooth payment processing for
online transactions, UBA also introduced
U-Collect
.
com/). U-Collect is UBA’s payment
gateway and it is the best and most
affordable in the industry today. Unlike
other processors in the market, U-Col-
lect does not require a setup fee or a
monthly payment to operate. It pro-
cesses international transactions, and
accepts both local and international
cards. U-Collect is available in 19 Afri-
can countries including Nigeria.
Payments Cards
Payment cards are another means
through which UBA has been facilitating
e-Commerce transactions. UBA pay-
ments cards are acceptable on PayPal,
one of the world’s largest online pay-
ment platforms, which allows individuals
and businesses to make easy interna-
tional payments. This means holders of
UBA’s MasterCard, Visa and Prepaid
cards can also pay for items from many
international stores that accept pay-
ments through PayPal.
There are also virtual cards. UBA struck a
partnership deal with Ixaris and its Nige-
rian partner “Ojapay” to deploy a vir-
tual card platform across its 20 African
markets. UBA will use Ixaris Payment
Server to deliver innovative payment
options for individuals and corporates
to facilitate e-commerce transactions
on the continent. This will provide a se-
cure, convenient and low-cost means
to make purchases online.
Final note
The e-commerce market in Africa is
predicted to reach $75 billion by 2025,
with financial institutions like UBA driving
the move by providing cutting edge
e-banking platforms and payment solu-
tions to sustain the trend.
CulledfromPhilipsConsultingOnlineShoppingReport-July2014
U-COLLECT
25%
24%
CLOTHINGANDFOOTWEAR
CONSUMERELECTRONICS
ANDCOMPUTERS
HOUSEHOLD
APPLIANCES
HOME
IMPROVEMENT
JEWELRY
TOYS
SPORTS
EQUIPMENT
GROCERY FURNITURE
ANDHOMEWARE
OTHER
15%
11%
7%
BOOKS,MUSIC,
MOVIE,VIDEOGAMES
HEALTH
ANDBEAUTY
4% 4% 3% 3% 2% 2% 2%
Global online
sales 2010 to 2013
Top consumer reasons
for shopping online
$680m
$763.2m
$1.0bn
$1.25bn
2013
2012
2011
2010
(Figures fromstatisticbrain.com)
59%
Easy to
compare
prices
67%
More
Variety
55%
Lower
prices
73%
Time
Saving
WHAT DO NIGERIANS BUY ONLINE?
Culled fromPhilipsConsultingOnlineShoppingReport -July2014
