Word on the street is that Simplepay has secured Level 1 PCI DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard) certification. Ignore all that jargon. Translation: they say they’re now just as secure as the most secure payment gateways in the world.
Securing the PCI DSS certification means they can now securely process payments from Verve, VISA and Mastercard cards. It also allows them offer merchants one-click and recurring payments. They’ve also received additional funding from Nigeria’s Bank of Industry and are offering free integration for merchants as part of their big relaunch.
“We will become the cheapest, most secure and reliable payment gateway in Nigeria…” says Simeon Ononobi, Founder of Simplepay, “…It is free for all to integrate and we have a cheaper fee for all startups for a period of 6 months. We charge 1.9% plus N10 which is the cheapest fee you can find right now in Nigeria. This is to encourage startups like us to connect; and to also help them meet their payment needs.”
The most interesting thing about this is that we’ve been crying about Nigerian payments for the longest time. I mean, we even organised an entire event about it. And it’s beginning to look like the payments gods have heard our cries.
From Simplepay, to Paystack, to Slushpay and a ton of others I’ve seen now claim to solve the same problem. Some appear to be doing it better than others, but it’s still too soon to tell who will overthrow the incumbents and win the hearts of merchants across Nigeria.
It’s going to be an interesting year, indeed.
