Okada Riders, Petty Traders Now Receive Transfer For Payment 6 News

Ismaeel Uthman

SEQUEL to the lingering scarcity of cash, commercial motorcyclists known as okada riders and pe y trades in the State of Osun have resolved to accep ng transfer as mode of payment for fare and sales.

OSUN DEFENDER noted that pe y traders have been procuring Point of Sales (POS) machines to aide the electronic payment for their customers.

This is just as both the pe y traders and commercial motorcyclists have opted for the virtual micro finance banks with which they receive transfer payment from the customers and passengers.

While majority of the POS operators have shutdown their shops due to lack of cash, findings revealed that the collecon of the POS machines is increasing among the pe y traders.

A foodstuff seller in Owode-Ede, Mrs Sherifat Abimbola, said she opted for the POS machine to increase her sales, saying majority of her customers offered to make transfer payment a er buying goods from her.

According to Abimbola, her sales had dropped since the cash crunch began, explaining that she had refused to accept electronic payment because of the fraud and stress associated with it.

Abimbola said she later went to procure a POS machine to aide the electronic payment for her customer and prevent fraudulent transac on.

She said: “When this cash crunch started, the sales was down and the market was dull generally. I was not accep ng transfer for payment from my customers because I was afraid of being scammed and the stress of confirming the payment. That affected my sales for like three weeks.

“When I discovered that I was losing customers and I was not making sales again, I went to collect POS machine. With that, my customers will use their ATM to make payment and it will be confirmed immediately. That has increased my sales.”

Speaking with OSUN DEFENDER on Wednesday, a fish seller at Oja-Oba market in Ikirun, Mrs Bisola Aderibigbe, said she resolved to opening an account with one of the virtual microfinance banks to receive transfer payment from her customers.

She said: “Since everybody is making transfer payment, I was told this online microfinance banks do not charge like the normal commercial banks. So, I opened an account with one of them and I have been receiving payment from it since.

“I was afraid of receiving transfer into my normal account because of the crazy charges on every transac on. But the virtual account is far be er than the commercial banks for us the pe y traders. We are now adap ng to the cashless policy.”

Some of the commercial motorcyclists who spoke with the medium said they had no choice than to accept the reality of the cash policy and ensure that it does not cripple their opera ons.

One of the commercial motorcyclists, John Agboola, a graduate of Business Administra on, said he was fast to accept the reality which ne- cessitated him to be accep ng transfer for the payment of transport fare from his passengers when his colleagues were lamen ng at the early stage.

Agboola said: “I knew this cash crunch will linger for long; and everybody know there is no cash in circula on. I am one of the few commercial motorcyclists, if not the first person, to start accep ng transfer payment from our passengers.

“I will be the one to tell them that I accept transfer, though I will add like N50 or above to the fare as charge, and that really boosted my opera on. Many of my colleagues are accep ng transfer too for payment now. I am happy we are moving with the de.”

UNIOSUN VC Emerges President Of African-German Board

Yusuf Oketola

THE African-German Network of Excellence in Science (AGNES) has elected the Vice-Chancellor of Osun State University, Prof. Clement Adebooye, as the President of the network.

Adebooye was elected to lead the network from 2023 to 2025 in an elecon that was conducted as part of its annual meeting on Wednesday. With Adebooye’s emergence, the Secretariat of the network will move from Benin Republic to Nigeria for the first me since its establishment in 2011 and it will be situated at Osun State University, Osogbo.

AGNES is a networking organisa on established