The onboarding of the New Quick Response (NQR) feature unto ALAT, Wema Bank’s digital banking platform, underscores how technology innovations continue to impact service delivery and contributions of banks in Nigeria to the National Financial Inclusion Strategy.

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), in continuation of implementation of National Financial Inclusion Strategy (NFIS), and other macroeconomic initiatives of the Federal Government geared towards accelerating national economic growth, approved the Framework for Quick Response (QR) Code payments in Nigeria, in January 2021.

Principal objective of the framework was to promote the use and adoption of electronic payments, foster innovation in payments system, and strengthen institutional framework for economic and financial industry stability in the country.

In addition to detailing the regulatory guidance, the aims of the framework include ensuring the adoption of appropriate QR Code standards for safe and efficient payments services in Nigeria. Participants approved for the implementation of QR Code payments include merchants, customers, issuers including banks, money market operators and other financial institutions, as well as payment service providers.

For banks, the guidelines also permit them the use of any other QR Code Standard provided, it meets the prescribed security requirements, demonstrate interoperability with other existing implementation in the industry and/or offer cost benefits to end users (merchants and customers).

By increasing their investment in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) infrastructure and capacity building for digital teams, banks in Nigeria are among the leading positive change agents that are widening access to financial services for the unbanked and underserved to be onboarded unto the financial inclusion bucket.

In Nigeria, QR payments system in particular is increasingly becoming more popular, because they offer wide range applicability. QR codes help businesses create customer engagements and sustain relationships. They are simple and easy to set up at no cost. QR codes enable users to receive payments from more than one customer at once.

Transactions can be initiated from start to finish without you having to be there so, users can free up their time to do other things. QR codes help bridge the gap between face-to-face and digital by allowing customers to pay with their preferred digital wallets.

Also, QR payments help merchants or businesses to work with brands to streamline their payments offerings across all channels – online, in-app and in-store and to scale their operations domestically and cross-border. They also drive smartphone penetration, financial inclusion and cashless economy.

In further demonstration of its commitment to consistently stay at the forefront of deploying digital technology to make service delivery more convenient, faster and better for the customers, ALAT, Nigeria’s leading digital banking platform, recently increased its offerings with the inclusion of the new quick response (NQR) code-based payments and collections solution to boost convenient and safe financial transactions.

With the NQR feature on ALAT, existing customers and non-customers can now enjoy code-based payment and collections solution that provides fast, easy, secure, reliable, contactless and account-based options to receive and pay for goods and services.

Merchants, business owners and individuals by displaying the QR Codes generated on ALAT, can henceforth receive payments at their locations for goods and services.

All that a customer needs to do is to select the NQR option on their bank’s mobile application and scan the displayed NQR Codes to make payment to the merchant. The merchants/business owners and payers get instant notification of payment made.

The benefits of the NQR on ALAT include simplicity of use, easy setup, zero cost of acquisition, and a seamless merchant onboarding process. Other benefits are super-fast deployment, instant payment and settlement, and fast and secured payment.

On the level of transaction that can be done using the new feature, transaction limits are determined by the payer’s bank. However, transactions below N250 would attract 50 kobo, while those between N25 and N999.99 would be charged N1.

NQR on ALAT also offers the lowest service fees unavailable anywhere in the industry today. Transactions ranging between N1000 and N4,999.99 will attract N5, just as those between N5000 and above would pay the applicable fee of N25.

Another uniqueness of the NQR on ALAT is that it is a safe platform, as the exchange of information via the QR code ensures that any transmitted data on the technology is encrypted, thus making the payment secure.

“Also, NQR is built around the universal EMVCO Security Standards. In addition, customers are protected by a secret 4-digit PIN used to consummate transactions and known to only the payer,” Wema Bank stated.

To enjoy the new service, customers will need to set up NQR on ALAT by first updating the ALAT app to the latest version before login into the ALAT app as a payer. Then select payment, QR payment to scan a code directly or from their galleries.

Merchants and receivers are also to log in to the ALAT app and select payments, QR payment and then create merchant and sub-merchant display the QR code to receive payment.

QR code payment methods have become one of the fastest-growing payment methods in the world. They are also one of the most efficient and simple ways to share information and complete online payments.

According to Juniper Research, 1.5bn people worldwide used QR codes to make payments in 2020 as usage soared during the Covid-19 pandemic, while forecasting that by 2025, as many as 30% of all mobile users will pay with QR codes.

Juniper Research further said that QR usage is bigger in China where it had become popular as far back as 2010 and account for one-third of all payments today, amounting to $1.65trillion in QR code sales.

QR Code is a machine-scannable image that can instantly be read using a smartphone camera. Every QR consists of black squares and dots which represent certain pieces of information. When your smartphone scans this code, it translates such information into something that can be easily understood by humans.