OPAY GETTING PAID - The Heroes of the Cashless Nigeria. A product two-cent

 It's January, 2023. the populace of Africa’s largest economy are gearing up to what would be a defining moment in the country’s history - Nigeria is electing a new president. 

This fact alone had her citizens on the edge of their seats, waiting and preparing for the trials that are commonplace during election periods. 

Limiting long distance travels? Check. Reading manifestos and studying track records? Check. Praying and hoping for peace and fairness? Check. All was set but nothing prepared them for the shocker of the coming weeks.


"NO CASH, MY PEOPLE" - CBN BOSS, EMEFIELE'S MASTER DISASTERCLASS


For reasons unknown to the general public, the Central Bank of Nigeria decided to haphazardly revamp the Naira currency notes with a new design, this came as a shock to most people and one would expect the Apex bank allow its customers have time to get their eyes accustomed to the design and their pockets, its weight. 
This wasn't the case as the CBN abruptly revoked the old notes of #1000 and #500 "rights" as legal tender. This led to chaos in the lands and threw Nigerians head-first into an also entirely cashless economy, the proceedings of common transactions and commerce being thrown up in flames.

WHO SHALL BE THE FINTECH PHEONIX?

In the chaos, a new market emerged, small scale business owners desperate to receive payment from customers and customers looking to patronize them.


One would think one of the big players of the banking industries would come in with a swoop but out of the corner emerged OPAY.


In the blink of an eye, OPAY was everywhere, the average kiosk had their cardboards out with their OPAY account numbers ready to be put to use, the veteran men and women of small scale businesses dishing out their numbers and ready to receive their “alerts” even without a smartphone. 

They had come in with a banger of a product.

How did they do this? 

From customer feedback, two particular product features tailored to the right market got them the jackpot.




1. Ease of adoption:



"I just opened my account, sharp sharp" - Remi, a rather satisfied customers


 Can’t remember your credentials? No problem. Get confused by arduous signup processes? We got you. Have only your phone number? Welcome!!

Opay made joining the platform as easy as ABC with potential users needing only their phone numbers and two minutes of their time to become customers. Absolutely eliminating the fear of difficulty commonly associated with the adoption of new technologies.


2. Transaction transparency: 



"Shebi Opay ni? O ma lo, ma worry" Translation: "It's Opay right? Don't worry, it (the transfer) will go through". Toheeb, a road-side vulcanizer.


Arguably the most important feature to the average customer, the allure of cash lies its authenticity, u can see, touch and acknowledge its value in real time, you know you have made your money. This isn’t the case with online transactions with money reported to “hang in the air”, the crime of fake transfers, misleading alerts among others, leading to disagreements between senders and receivers. This has made a lot of people veer off of adopting Fintechs. 

OPAY resolved this by ensuring the status of a transaction, be it approved, pending or failed is made available in real time, couple this with the high rate of successful transactions and you have a platform that anybody can TRUST.


3. Premium Incentives for Adoption and Engagement:




From a 1200 naira no-strings attached welcome package when a new user signs up with an activation code '8144544735', to cashback on transactions involving data and airtime, OPAY actively rewards its users for adoption and engagement, everybody wins.


Given the fear of another cash drought, many Nigerians are not looking to drop their online money channels anytime soon and Opay just might be here to stay.


For any questions or if you're looking for a new Product buddy. Connect with me on LinkedIn


Thank you for your time!!


Check out another surprise champion in a different industry when we talk about our Whitewash wonder.




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

What in the Product are you? Owner or Manager, let's find out

Image
 You've packed your bags and ventured into the world of product (not this blog, you've always been one of us), now you're looking for where to start. You hear of product managers, product owners and get a bit confused. "Who am I managing, I'm not ready", "Ownership? Do they give me the product?". You need answers and you've come to the right place. Let's dive in Let's start from the Product Owner THE PRODUCT OWNER Superscrum - Our PO for the day. Hint: Scrum Product Owner is a role with Scrum A role/accountability in the self-managing Scrum team meaning you are nobody’s boss. You also don’t OWN the product, you are responsible for its value, you determine it. This is done primarily using the Product Backlog - an ordered list of what is needed to improve the product, created by the Product Owner. The product Owner gives his team direction, communicates with stakeholders to elicit requirements but has the final say on what his team builds, ...
Read more

I passed the PSPO I exam with 97.5% on my first try, here’s how you can do better with what I’ve learnt

Image
          Hi there, certified Product Owner and all round great guy (according to gram gram) Daniel of The World of Product here and I wrote and passed the PSPO I certification exam and came out with a fairly good score of 97.5% While I was satisfied with the end result, I wasn’t satisfied with the preparation process, I had put in unnecessary work into unnecessary things and with what I learnt from the experience, I could easily bag a 100% with the right approach and today, I’m going to share some of what I learnt with you, my friend. So sit back and get ready to stand out from the candidate crowd . 1. First, CAREFUL with modal verbs Here's the first one and really important one, know what may, what must, could, should, would occur during the execution of Scrum. These will draw a fine line when you are actively working the field because due to the Agile nature of Scrum, you are potentially going to make certain tradeoffs and you must ensure that you and your te...
Read more