Electronic Payment System Adoption In Developing Economy Information Technology Essay

The advent of the Internet has brought about a dramatic growth in the volume of online transactions all over the world. These business activities include electronic fund transfer (EFT), supply chain management, e-Marketing, online marketing, online transaction processing, electronic data interchange (EDI) and automated data management among others [Ayo 2008]. E-payment is a subset of e-governance which is the application of electronic means in the interaction between Government and Citizens, and Government and Businesses. It is a form of direct payment and banking without physical appearance at the Bank through the means of electronic, interactive communication channels and other technology infrastructure. E-payment can be described as the method of effecting payments from one end to another end through the medium of the computer without manual intervention beyond inputting the payment data.

In Nigeria, the modernization of the payment process started with the introduction of the MICR (Magnetic Ink Character Recognition), followed by the establishment of ATMs (Automated Teller machine) for cash dispensing, account balance enquiry and payment of utility cheques. In 1993, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), introduced the use of payment cards (smartcard). Similarly in 2004, CBN introduced a broad guideline on e-banking which included the introduction of ATM, e-money products such as credit and debit cards. Currently, there is a real-time gross settlement (RTGS) system that eliminates the risks involved in large-value payment. The new Internet money, that is the form of money using Internet as the main transaction mode, builds on payments instruments such as credit cards and direct debit and credit and electronic versions of cash and checks. It differs from earlier forms of money in that it is both impersonal and virtual. There is no identifiable person at the other end of the transaction as when paying via EFTPOS (Electronic fund Transfer Point of sale) or with a plastic card across the counter. It does not result in physical cash unlike the ATM or EFTPOS withdrawals. Internet money also does not automatically generate a physical record which is evidential in nature. The closest approximation to Internet money is using the plastic card over the phone, fax or mail. But the phone, fax and mail are less virtual than the Internet in the sense that the potential for personal interaction and a physical record of transaction is greater [Singh 1996]. One of the biggest challenges in the development of electronic commerce has been for banks and merchants to overcome the issues of customer identification and account verification for online purchases.  While the credit card systems have a process in place to verify and authorize transactions, the Internet poses challenges for merchants to not only validate that funds are available in an account, but to positively identify that the customer is in fact authorized to use that account for purchases. [Denny S 1998]

However, not much success has been achieved in terms of evolving an efficient payment system that may have stemmed from attitudinal and social problems as manifested in the huge amount of money that resides outside the banking sector. Nigeria is largely a cash-based economy with over 90% of funds residing outside the banking sector as against the developed such as UK (4%) and USA (9%) [Ojo 2004, Ovia 2003]. The cash-based economy is characterized by the psychology to physically hold and touch cash: a culture informed by ignorance, illiteracy, and lack of security consciousness and appreciation of merits digital payment. [Ayo 2006]. The cash based nature of the Nigerian economy has to a great extent, hindered the participation of her citizens in e-commerce where e-payment is the acceptable means of settling transactions. For e-commerce to be successful, an efficient e-payment system is the key. The use of formal payment systems also enhances the ability to execute and manage monetary policies, which is essential for a country’s financial sector. Although Nigeria is a regional leader, the use of e-Payments is low despite its many benefits and attempts by the financial authorities to make the public accept the electronic payment system.

The slow pace of development of e-payment in developing countries could also be attributed to lack of adequate infrastructure, low Internet penetration, absence of open standards/trust among banks and providers as well as absence of adequate legislation or national policy on IT development. According to Ezeoha [2006a], image problem is another issue. The Advance Fee Fraud code-named 419, is one of the most popular Internet frauds and is perceived to be rampant in Nigeria. Consequently, there has been outright rejection of payment cards issued by Nigerian banks on the international arena.

The aim of this study is to analyse the performance of e-payment systems in Nigeria from the users’ perspectives. It investigates the factors that affect individual’s intention to adopt e-payment in Nigeria. In Section 2.0, we review some existing literature on e-payment especially in developing countries. Section 3.0 considers some e-payment systems available in Nigeria, while Section 4 presents the research framework. The methodology of the study is explained in Section 5, while the data analysis and discussion of results are presented in Section 6. Some conclusions are drawn in Section 7.

2.0 REVIEW OF RELATED WORKS

The advent of the Internet has brought about a dramatic growth in the volume of online transactions all over the world. These business activities include electronic fund transfer (EFT), supply chain management, e-Marketing, online marketing, online transaction processing, electronic data interchange (EDI) and automated data management among others (Vladimir, 2003). The current dot com era has witnessed a lot of changes arising from the growth in information and communication technology (ICT). The ICT has remained the dominant factor and platform for business transactions. The traditional e-Commerce involved carrying out commercial transactions electronically using technology like EDI and EFT (Haaq et al, 2000). Currently, e-Commerce has emerged as the convergence of business practices and information technologies such as computer networking and telecommunications; client/server computing, multimedia and hypermedia systems; information retrieval systems; electronic data interchange; message handling and workflow management systems; groupware and electronic meeting systems; and public-key cryptography (Vladimiri, 1996). e-Commerce is made possible by e-payment systems, which enable transactions to be carried out seamlessly without physical contact.

The emergence of e-commerce has created new financial needs, which cannot be effectively fulfilled by the traditional system of payment. More so, all interested parties are exploring various types of electronic payment system and issues surrounding electronic payment system. With the growing complexities in the e-commerce transactions, different electronic payment systems have been identified and classified. Dennis (2001) classified electronic payment system into two categories: (1) Electronic Cash and (2) Electronic Debit-Credit Card Systems. Kalakota and Whinston (1996) identified three types of electronic payment systems: (1) Digital Token based electronic payment systems, (2) Smart Card based electronic payment system and (3) Credit based electronic payment systems. Anderson (1998) classified electronic payment systems into four: Online Credit Card Payment System, Electronic Cheque System, Electronic Cash System and Smart Card based Electronic Payment System. Murthy (2002) further classified electronic payment systems into six, based on the kinds of information being transferred online: (1) PC-Banking (2) Credit Cards (3) Electronic Cheques (i-cheques) (4) Micro payment (5) Smart Cards and (6) E-Cash. Each payment system has its advantages and disadvantages for the customers and merchants. These payment systems vary in terms of security, acceptability, convenience, cost, anonymity, control, and traceability requirements.

Electronic payment system is conducted in different e-commerce categories such as Business-to-Business (B2B), Business-to-Consumer (B2C), Consumer-to-Business (C2B) and Consumer-to-Consumer (C2C). Each category of e-commerce has special characteristics such as value of order and ease of transaction. Danial, (2002) classified electronic payment systems in terms of the type of e-commerce and the value of money involved as follows: 1). Micro Payment (less than $ 10) that is mainly conducted in C2C and B2C e-commerce, 2). Consumer Payment (between $ 10 and $ 500) conducted mainly in B2C transactions, and 3). Business Payment (more than $ 500 value) conducted mainly in B2B e-commerce. Cavarretta and de Silva (1995) had a wider range in the last two of the categories: 1). Tiny value transactions (below $1), 2). medium value transactions (between $1 and $1000), and 3). large value transactions (above $1000). According to Turban et al (2004), B2B transactions account about 95% of e-commerce transactions, while others account about 5%. The C2C category transactions, is relatively small due to its stiff usability. According to Cavarretta and de Silva (1995), systems that can support tiny value transactions have to trade-off between conveniences of transactions (the major part of a cost in an extremely cheap transaction) vs. the security or durability of transactions. On the other side of the amount range, large value transactions will require highly secure protocols whose implementations are costly: be on-line and/or carry traceability information. Nearly all the systems can perform medium value transactions.

Different countries are likely to prefer the different forms of electronic payment system; however, the credit card payment system seems to be universal. In 2003, 94.1% of all worldwide e-commerce transactions were conducted using credit cards (Pago, 2003). Even today, Credits cards are dominant form of online payment all over the world. This is especially true about the developed and fastest developing countries. Most of these transactions were carried out in the USA. Only 50 % of consumers outside the USA engage in credit card transactions (Landon and Traver, 2002). Most of the developing countries rely much more on electronic funds transfer and smart cards based electronic payment system. Very few percent of people have credit cards and use of e-cheque is in vogue Sumanjeet (2008). Outside the US, electronic payment system is heavily influenced by the host country’s financial infrastructure (Lawarence, 2000). Added to these, legal regimes, IT Infrastructure, economic and social conditions, are the strong determinants of the methods of online payment and all these vary from country to country and even within the country.

Poor countries still rely on traditional cash and cheque system; they are not very much familiar with the electronic payment system because of poor infrastructure, poor economic conditions, lack of education etc. rate of adoption of e-payment system is not very encouraging in these countries. Uzoka and Seleka (2006) identified the following factors that militate against e-commerce development in Africa: Internet marketing factor, organizational factors, Internet logistic and access factor, security and legal factor, customer demographic factor, internet development factor, and media’s negative reporting on ecommerce and fraud related issues. Developing countries, especially in Africa, tend to lack the infrastructural, economic, and socio-political framework for the development of electronic-commerce in comparison to developed countries. E-commerce thrives on the utilization of credit cards and other e-payment systems. Cash driven economies need to develop a system of participation in the international e-market place by encouraging the establishment of credit management firms within their economies.

Ayo et al (2008) carried out a PEST (political, economic, social and technological) analysis of e-Commerce in Nigeria. The findings of the study revealed that the Automatic Teller Machine (ATM) is the most widely used medium of e-Payment in Nigeria. Similarly, the low level of Internet penetration was identified as one of the major threats to e-Commerce implementation. As suggestion was made for private and public partnership (PPP) in order to evolve a viable framework for e-commerce in Nigeria and other African countries. The PPP would involve a consortium of stakeholders (private and public partnership) consisting of merchants, customers, issuers, telecoms operators, card manufacturers and government officials among others to: 1). Popularize e-payment systems, 2). Provide infrastructure for increased access to Internet services, 3). Provide security and trust in online transactions.

In its survey on the extent of e-banking adoption by Nigerian banks, the Central Bank of Nigeria, in September 2002, found out that of the 89 licensed banks in the country, 17 were offering Internet banking, 24 were offering basic telephone banking, 7 had ATM services, while 13 of the banks were offering other forms of e-banking. This implies that as at then, only 19.1 percent of the banks were offering Internet banking. At present, the situation does not seem to have shown any significant improvement. Whereas about 90 percent of the banks in the country offer other forms of electronic banking services like telephone banking, ATM and electronic funds transfer, Internet banking is yet to take centre stage. This type of banking is still at the basic formative stage. Part of the reasons identified for the inability of banks in Nigeria to take full advantage of this mode of banking includes lack of adequate operational infrastructure like telecommunication and power, upon which e-banking generally relies. Due to the inability of the banks to integrate their operations into the Internet development process, Internet banking can be said to have less impact in the existing banking structure in the country. (Ezeoha 2005)

Currently, there are 7 channels in use in Nigeria; Web, Point-of-Sales terminals (POS), Automated Teller Machines (ATM), Kiosk, Bank Branch, Mobile, and Voice (IVR-Interactive Voice responders) for automated telephone systems, with enormous benefits associated with each channel. Nigeria presently has about 8000 ATMs installed in various bank branches and off-bank premises such as shopping malls and hotels. In addition to this, 12,000 points of sale terminals are also available. Records also revealed that the total number of ATM transactions on the InterSwitch network as at 31st December, 2008 was approximately 60 million. Again, the total number of transactions on the InterSwitch network as at 31st December, 2008 was approximately 100 million transactions as against 42 million transactions recorded as at 31st December 2007; an increase of over 100 percent within a space of one year, and the trend is increasing. Even though e-payment is still evolving in Nigeria, the high rate of currency-in-circulation is still worrisome. According to the monthly report of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) for October 2008, the currency in circulation during the period was N966.1 billion. To a greater extent, this has hindered the participation of Nigerians in e-commerce where e-payment is the only acceptable means of settling transactions. (Bolu, is it possible to find references to support this paragraph?)

3.0 SOME PAYMENT SERVICES PROVIDED BY BANKS IN NIGERIA

(Bolu, can you re-write this section to make it brief and organized. I think it is an important section)

These days most banks of Nigeria offer internet banking services in enabling the customers to have access to banking transactions online, from the suitable places like their residence or offices. The expansion and getting of Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) and credit or debit cards also control helpfully on the country’s e-commerce growth. In fact, e-commerce development in Nigeria is sluggish but steady. The beginning of e-commerce services is fixed confidently by a requirement of people’s information on how to make use of the brand new technologies. Nigerian citizens can pay, withdraw or transfer funds everywhere in the country.

Adeyemi Adeyinka, Managing Partner, Intermac Consulting, an integrated consulting firm with focus on e-business with particular emphasis on e-banking and e-payment intermediation observed that Nigeria has continued to make steady progress towards ensuring full banking transaction automation with the value of e-payment rising to N360 billion in 2008. He noted that the increase in the adoption of the electronic model is not only driven by the need for electronic services but also by the love and speedy uptake of new technologies by Nigerians. Most astonishing, is the fact that the uptake of technology in the country cuts across all strata of society. This is even as artisans, market women and okada riders make use of the e-payment systems as well as the upwardly mobile professionals. All these are great indications that there is a lot of prospect for electronic payment in Nigeria.

Experts say that with the mass market in Nigeria constituting about 70 percent of the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), the impact of deploying cards and other electronic mode of banking in the country has led to increased reach, as customers can now access their accounts even at locations where their banks are not located through the electronic banking models.  They also say that the introduction of various e-models has led to low operational costs, increased operational efficiency, removing cost of cash transactions, multicard and multi application availability, reduced congestions in banking halls amongst others.

Nigerian citizens also can buy with their e-cards thanks to such e-payment providers as Interswitch, Master Card, Visa Card and e-transact. The current growth and expansion of Western shopping malls in Nigeria is also awfully significant. The part of e-commerce that has expanded in Nigeria generally is e-banking. These days the greater parts of the Nigerian banks offer online and real-time banking services. Online banking systems have by now become usual for Nigerian customers as they are provided the flexibility in service their accounts in any branch of their bank’s system.

Banks are too gradually more looking to card-based payment explanation away from the extensively accepted electronic reward though these are slow to take off such as debit and credit cards. The service to be developed considerably in Nigeria is an ATM system and A few banks initiated the ATM Consortium in 2003 to set up ATMs around the country.

2.14.1 Xpath/Xpath PIN vending

This is a bank collection method that allows your customers receive payments electronically for services rendered to clients irrespective of their location in the country with or without the use of customized deposit slips lodged at any location of Zenith Bank Plc with notifications via email or mobile SMS on each transaction.

 Xpath PIN Vending is an option that enables the sale of unique pins or serial numbers (numeric or alphanumeric) for the specific purpose of providing a secure product or services

2.14.1.1 Benefits:

Reduces the risk & cost associated with of handling cash.

Reduce overhead cost of operation.

Enables fast and easy payment processing.

Online monitoring console and log or transactions available.

Wider payment outlets

Eliminates fraud

2.14.2 Z-Mobile 

This is a payment service provided to customers by Zenith Bank’s mobile banking product. It enables you to carry out various banking and payment transactions on your mobile phone. It runs as a menu driven application and it eliminates the use of series of strings as it is on our previous mobile link. Such strings like: “BAL*CA*PIN” – for Current Account or “BAL*SA*PIN” – for Savings Account are now being replaced with a menu driven application with more options to serve our customers better.

2.14.2.1Features

Check account balance

View mini statement of account

Transfer funds from card to account, card to mobile and card to card

Mobile phone credit top up for Glo, MTN and Celtel

Pay Bills e.g. DSTV

2.14.2.2 Benefits

Customers have access to their accounts anywhere nationwide. Access outside the country is available only if the customer activates his roaming facility.

Customers can conveniently monitor their account activities

Zmobile application is card based, more secure and menu driven

2.15 Webpay

This is Zenith’s online payment solution for merchants who have E-Commerce enabled websites, and want customers to pay for goods and services purchased directly from the website. WebPay will allow users to make payments for goods and services directly, via the Merchant’s website. WebPay provides a payment link between the web merchant and the potential buyer. It enables anybody to purchase products and pay for services rendered via the merchant’s website.

Figure2. 1-Webpay card

2.16 V-PAY

V-pay card is a secured chip-based debit card acceptable only in Nigeria and runs on the robust platform of Visa International online real time. Our VPay card enables you to PAY for the exact amount of goods purchased; fuel your car without holding cash etc. Your loved ones in Diaspora can transfer money to your V-pay card for you to withdraw using the ATM. This service is provided by the intercontinental bank of Nigeria.

2.16.1 Features of a V-PAY

It is a secured chip based debit card acceptable only in Nigeria.

Has a large memory to store a lot of other personal data e.g. Health Data, Insurance data e.t.c. a function that cannot be performed by a magnetic stripe card.

It is used to make purchase on Point of Sale (POS) and make cash withdrawal on ATM 24/7

Can be used as a branded corporate

Can serve as a multi purpose Card for an ID Card and Security Access control card TRAVEL CARDS to promote organizations’ image beyond the shores of Nigeria

Allows business owners/authorized employees access to funds from their businesses’  demand/current deposit accounts

Can be used for the payments of utility bills (PHCN, Water e.t.c)

V-Pay Card is accepted anywhere the V-Pay or VISA signage is displayed in Nigeria

Seamless migration from local V-Pay cards to International

2.16.2 Benefits of V-pay card

Instant card- easy and quick to obtain

Minimum documentation required

Very low charges

Cardholders can receive money from friends and loved ones in Diaspora via V-Money Transfer platform – link

Safe and secure as chip is not easily compromised

Cardholder’s bio-data can be programmed on the chip

2.17 Intercontinental Bank Card service

2.17.1 Intercontinental visa card

Intercontinental Bank Plc Visa Card is a Chip & Pin Enabled Payment System which is globally recognized and accepted in over 170 countries, 1 million ATMs and over 29 million merchant outlets. It can be used to transact and make payments across multiple channels like:

Automated Teller Machines (ATM)

Point of Sale terminals (POS)

Internet

Telephone orders

2.17.1.1 Corporate Visa Card

The Corporate Visa Card will offer your organization an effective method of managing your employees’ expenses with streamlined reporting and reconciliation capabilities that will further provide your organization an ideal cash management solution.

2.17.1.2 Visa Prepaid Card

This is an instant un-personalized prepaid, reloadable spending card that can be used to make purchases everywhere Visa is accepted. The perfect card to be used by parents who needs to control their children spending, for shopping on the internet, as a gift, for payment of international association dues, sending funds to a loved one abroad, etc.

2.17.1.3 Visa Classic Debit

Visa Classic Debit Cards comes in any of the following combinations. Visa Debit (NGN) account ONLY, Visa Debit (USD) account ONLY & Visa Debit (GBP) account ONLY

2.17.1.4 Visa Classic Credit Card

Visa Classic Credit Card is the most popular card; it’s simple, widely available and provides everything you need to cover your basic financial needs. More so the Visa Classic card is for convenience, reliability and worldwide acceptance.

2.17.1.5 Visa Gold Credit Card

Intercontinental Bank Visa Gold Card delivers the recognition, security and preferred service you demand. Our cardholders need not worry about carrying loads of cash and the attendant security risk that comes with it when they travel.

2.18 Intercontinental Verve Card

This card is positioned as a premium, innovative brand set to meet your needs by providing convenience, security, reliability, recognition and reward. It provides strong security based on its EMV chip & PIN complaint status, therefore cannot be cloned. It is a debit card linked to your current card and/or savings etc.

2.18.1 Types of Verve Card

Verve Debit Card: The card works like a cheque with an ATM card ensuring guaranteed security.

Verve Prepaid Card: The reloadable prepaid card that can be purchased instantly. It is safer than cash and always secured.

Verve Gift Card: The gift card is ideal for your gift giving occasion. You can choose the amount and the recipient chooses the gift they really want.

2.18.2 Features of Verve Card

A secure EMV Chip based card, store data on chip with considerable memory size. Can be multipurpose, used for Health, Insurance , I.D card, Government etc as it can store all types of data based on Scheme requirement.

The card is multifunction given the classification as a chip based card. The functionalities can be explored to launch many card schemes which hitherto have been impossible.

Data stored on chip are encoded and encrypted. This does not guarantee absolute security but makes cloning more difficult. In addition to this, it supports the “OTP Strong Authentication” initiatives to help safeguard cardholders’ funds. This measure ensures that the chip is not easily cloned and breach can easily be curtailed.

Has international acceptability and meets the EMV compliance standard for electronic transactions.

The variability in usage creates opportunities to recoup investments in the outlay and impact positively on the bottom line.

Data is generated in an EMV compliant environment.

2.18.3 Benefits of the Card

Reduces risk associated with cash handling

Convenient means of making payment all over Nigeria

Online tracking of transactions

The Card that gives you access to mobile banking, phone top ups, Inter- bank transfers, cash withdrawal on the ATM in Nigeria and Ghana, and payment for goods and services on the web. It’s extremely secured and portable.

2.18.4 Features and Benefits

Gives you access to all the electronic channels like the ATM’s, POS terminals, mobile and the Web.

It can serve as an alternate card to your other cards enabling you to withdraw additional cash per day.

It enables you to make withdrawal in Ghana.

It also enables you to top up your phone, send airtime to friends & loved ones, make Inter-bank funds transfer and bills payment etc

2.19 GT PAY

GTPay is Guaranty Trust Bank’s e-payment solution that enables merchants’ integration to multiple payment gateways in an easy and consistent manner. With this, merchants only need to write their ‘ePortal’ once, integrating with GTPay, and it handles communication with the supported payment gateways – that do the actual financial debit/credit of accounts.

4.0 Theoretical framework

Several theories and models have been developed in different disciplines and used in predicting, explaining, and understanding individuals’ acceptance and adoption of new products or technologies. These models have evolved over the years and came as a result of persistent efforts of models’ validation and extension that took place during the period each was presented. For example, Psychology contributed the Theory of Reasoned Action, TRA (Ajzen and Fishbein, 1980), which was extended to the Theory of Planned Behaviour, TPB (Ajzen, 1985) which was also extended to the Decomposed Theory of Planned Behaviour, DTPB (Taylor and Todd, 1995); Information Systems contributed the Technology Acceptance Model, TAM (Davis, 1986), which is an extension of Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA); the TAM was further extended to TAM2 (Venkatesh and Davis, 2000) and the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology, UTAUT (Venkatesh et al., 2003) . This study adopts the UTAUT model in trying to understand the state of e-payments in Nigeria and factors that affect the adoption of e-payment systems in Nigeria.

The UTAUT comprises of all the eight models used to describe technology acceptance behaviour. In the UTAUT model, performance expectancy and effort expectancy were used to incorporate the constructs of perceived usefulness and ease of use in the technology acceptance model (TAM). Perceived ease of use can be expected to be more salient only in the early stages of using a new technology and it can have a positive effect on perceived usefulness of the technology. The UTAUT model attempts to explain how individual differences influence technology use. More specifically, the relationship between perceived usefulness, ease of use, and intention to use can be moderated by age, gender, and experience. For example, the strength between perceived usefulness and intention to use varies with age and gender such that it is more significant for male and younger workers.

The effect of perceived ease of use on intention is also moderated by gender and age such that it is more significant for female and older workers, and those effects decrease with experiences. Four constructs affect behavioural intention. These are: performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence and facilitating conditions. More so the moderators in the model include gender, age, experience and voluntariness of use. In addition each of the moderators has an effect on each of the constructs as seen in the model. Only the constructs performance expectancy, effort expectancy, and social influence have direct effect on the behavioural intention while facilitating conditions is the only construct that has a direct effect on use behaviour.

The UTAUT provides a useful tool for the assessment of the likelihood of success of adoption of a new technology. The research model (based on UTAUT) is presented in Table 1.

INDIVIDUAL CONTEXT

TECHNOLOGICAL CONTEXT

IMPLEMENTATION CONTEXT

Social Influence

Facilitating Conditions

Effort Expectancy

Performance Expectancy

Awareness

Anxiety

Attitude towards technology

Self Efficacy

MODERATING FACTORS

Age

Experience

Gender

Intension to use the e-payment system

E-payment system utilisation

Educational background

Job

Skills

Security

Figure3. 7- Research Model

The model is divided into three contexts which includes; technological contexts, implementation contexts and individual context. They all determine an individual’s intention to use the e-payment system, as seen in the model all three context have direct effect on inte