Whatsapp has introduced payments to its messaging app in India, making
it the latest service to let users transfer money to one another with a
text.
After the pilot in India, this peer-to-peer payments, would
be available in Nigeria and other African countries and it will have
profound effect on banks already hemorrhaging from revenue losses.
With
the new service, users can now link their bank account to their
WhatsApp account via Unified Payments Interface (UPI) and begin making
payments straight to another user’s bank account through a WhatsApp
chat.
According to Ndubisi Ekewe, who is familiar with the
development, banks have everything to worry
about the risks to banks are
clear.
“The telcos have hated the global messaging app; now the
banks join the fray. The risk to banks is clear: if WhatsApp becomes
very successful in payments, it may become a small bank of itself. In
other words, if people decide to be leaving money in their wallets
without moving them to their bank accounts, most banks would struggle
[liquidity issues]” Ekewe added.
In Nigeria, the rise and
popularity of over-the-top (OTT) services has taken a huge toll on the
bottom line of telcos across the globe. The OTT services include instant
messaging, voice/ video calls and others.
Association of
Licensed Telecommunication Operators of Nigeria (ALTON), the industry
body of all licensed telecoms operators and infrastructure providers, by
the consumers, the regulator and the policy makers, has lamented the
impact of OTT on the bottom line of carriers.
Gbenga Adebayo,
chairman, said OTT utilise traditional Mobile Network Operator (MNO)
infrastructure to offer social networks, voice and instant messaging
services to retain users’ loyalty and drive stickiness with a view
creating large on-line communities and eventually attract huge
advertisement revenues.
The MNOs have neither rights nor control
over the OTT services, as customers have the discretion to use the
internet as they like.
The case maybe worse for Nigerian banks
because as Ekewe pointed out, most Nigerian banks are enjoying growing
transaction-based fees with ATM charges and all kinds of charges
including stamp duty on digital transfer.
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