KongaPay Introduces Cardless Withdrawal Feature

E-commerce outlet, Konga has launched a new Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) feature on its payment platform. The new feature is designed for easy transactions and to enable card-less withdrawal from the ATM.

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has recently issued licenses to some operators of Fintech services in Nigeria who offer secure payment services to expand their services. Konga is one of those who secured the license and is putting it to good use.

Joshua Fatoye, the vice president of KongaPay, said at the launch of the new feature that the card-less initiative will give KongaPay account holders the opportunity to make withdrawal from ATMs nationwide without debit cards, apart from serving as an alternative to the web and mobile channels.

He also explained that Konga customers who wish to use the card-less services need to sign up on kongapay.com and make sure their accounts are well funded using any of their varying funding options. He said:

“All the customers are required to do is to sign up on kongapay.com and ensure that their KongaPay wallet is funded using any of the funding options. Then, the account holders need to log into their wallets via the web or app.”

How it works

Users who want to cash out will need to click on the cash-out feature on the app, fill in their mobile number or that of the intended recipient. The payment system functions on Personal Identification Number (PIN), and One Time Password (OTP). So the sender is required to use any of these security means as authorization for transactions, and the receiver does not have to be registered on Konga platform.

Fatoye explains: “The customer who initiates the transaction will receive a message thus: “your pay code request was successful,” and the beneficiary will get a SMS notification with the withdrawal code details.”

The receiver can then make withdrawal of the cash from any ATM using the card-less withdrawal function or pay code cash-out feature. But the recipient has to enter the 8 to 14 digit withdrawal code sent to him earlier via SMS to collect his instant cash.

The evolution of card-less ATM withdrawal is spreading rapidly in Nigeria, and many Fintech companies are working to make sure everyone gets on board. Although there has been little awareness about the technology today, there is hope the knowledge will become abundant in the near future.

Industry Redesign

In April, there was a report of a bank customer who was dragged to a police station by ignorant bank users for withdrawing from the ATM without a debit card in Ibadan. But the incident turned out to be an orientation, people who didn’t believe in the possibility of card-less ATM withdrawal learned that it’s no magic, and withdrawing money from the ATM without a debit card is not a crime.

However, the incident reveals that apart from Lagos, where many people can relate with the technique, several other states are yet to come into terms with card-less withdrawals. That beckons the responsibility on the banks and Fintechs to do more.

In 2016, Verve launched the system that can help anyone to make a withdrawal from an ATM without a card. Just by using codes generated through its app, even a third party can affect a card-less withdrawal transaction. Subsequently, banks and other payment platforms embraced the idea and started offering the service.

OPay and Flutterwave recently became part of the USSD family, among other services, helping in offering card-less withdrawal. But the increasing number of service providers in this feature of financial transaction is slow in bridging the gap between users, non-users and those who know nothing about the service: suggesting the need for awareness that will rid the fears of onlookers who need security assurance to make up their mind.

While the KongaPay will help, the onus is on the banks to educate the people because of the number of customers at their disposal, and the already existing trust that the card-less withdrawal service can be promoted upon.