BD interviews Obi, MD eTranzact Intl’ Plc

BusinessDay interviews Valentine Obi, MD eTranzact PLC

Extract:

Q: What is your view on BusinessDay Mobile Money Conference?

I think it is very apt, exactly what is going on in the country. There needs to be a lot of awareness and education with understanding of what is going on and get people to be a part a train that is already moving. If we don’t get proper awareness, people may get lost in the electronic payment trend.

Q: So far how has the e-payment system favoured your company, what challenges have you faced and how have you overcome those challenges?

In 2003 when we just started it was like, ‘Are you sure it’s going to work in Nigeria?’ so it’s heart warming to see that the vision was right and people are beginning to buy into what we were expressing 10 years ago. It is a joy to see that what is happening is happening. I remember 10 years ago when we said we would build a mobile payment platform and then you send an SMS, which gets back to you the next day. This lead people to ask, how you can build a platform on such an epileptic network but it is different now and it can only but improve.

Q: What measures do you think can be put in place to further enable e-transactions?

The government should set proper infrastructure. In terms of policies, CBN is doing great. In some places, some have slowed their momentum but I general I think we are doing fine. Infrastructures can only but improve. For instance the telecommunications sector; many years ago, there were just about 50,000 lines now we can talk about millions of them. The industry is shaping up.

Q: Advice for young entrepreneurs

Be passionate and truly believe that you are there to add value otherwise you should not be there. There would be challenges but if you are passionate enough and add value it would give you the push to do what you need to do.