Cadmus delivers Eftpos to Nigeria

Eftpos payment system specialist Cadmus Technology is extending its international reach with a deal to supply 2,500 wireless terminals to Nigeria.

Cadmus director of international sales and marketing Pat McCammon described the deal as "sizeable" and was bullish about prospects for future growth in the region.

Although the eftpos market in Nigeria was relatively immature in terms of debit cards, the West African country has proven itself to be an early to adopt new technology such as mobile phones, he said.

Nigeria has over 12 million mobile connections compared to less than a million land lines.

The wireless hand-held terminal was selected because dial up options in Nigeria are unreliable and costly.

McCammon said that "right now in countries like Nigeria if you need to pay your power bill or a phone bill you really need to take half your day off work to go and queue and pay."

"So there's some huge advantages for the billers and also the consumers to be able to go to a retail store whilst purchasing items or services and pay other facilities, other utilities."

The Auckland company will supply the terminals to Australian-based company O&G Eftpos who will distribute them in Nigeria.

O&G work closely with Interswitch, a co-operative owned by African banks, based in Lagos, and charged with facilitating the country's electronic payments.

Working with O&G rather than trying to strike a deal directly has opened doors for the company, he said.

"So what we've done is work with this company in Sydney made up of several Nigerians living in Australia but [who] have very high level contacts to Interswitch in Lagos, and into the political arena in Nigeria."

He adds dealing with an Australian company also provides greater financial security when developing export markets and may generate demand for other products.

"It's always quite challenging with regards to guaranteeing you're going to get paid so from that point of view that's why we've done it."

The Nigerian deal comes less than two weeks after Cadmus broke into the Indian market with a deal to supply 1,000 terminals to ICICI, the country's second largest bank.

The bank, which has more than 13 million clients, 570 branches and 2025 automated teller machines, will supply the terminals to its merchants throughout India.

McCammon said at the time it was a strategically important first step into the vast Indian eftpos terminal market.

"We know all the indicators are that the Indian market will need increasing volumes of eftpos terminals in the next few years, so being one of the first companies to meet the demand was always a priority for Cadmus."