Lagos, Nigeria — Online business owners can now access funding of up to N2million with SocialPay, an online payment collection product designed by Sterling’s The Business Hub to facilitate payments via multiple payment options including USSD, bank transfer, card options, and PayWithSpecta. In addition, the first 10,000 merchants will have access to a one-month interest free loan up to a maximum of N1million.
SocialPay is designed to solve the problem of trust between online merchants and their customers by allowing merchants to track payments using automatic invoicing. The platform currently hosts over 2,000 social sellers.
Shina Atilola, Divisional Head, Retail and Consumer Banking, Sterling, said SocialPay was introduced to make payment easy for Nigerians engaging in digital commerce.
“Our customers, both retailers and buyers, are now selling and making purchases through social networks. Following this cue, we introduced SocialPay to make it convenient to make and receive payments within that same ecosystem,” Atilola disclosed.
According to Atilola, SocialPay is a secure payment solution for businesses selling online through websites, social media pages/ handles, or WhatsApp for Business.
“With social media networks becoming the centre of everyday life for almost 25million Nigerians, SocialPay will ensure that these digital natives can make quick purchases and receive payments from social stores.
“SocialPay makes payment as simple as clicking a button, and the money is immediately transferred. The biggest benefit of the payment solution is that the transacting parties (sellers and buyers) are protected.”
Repayments on the business loans will be done daily and customers will be able to choose what percentage of their daily sales would go towards repayment from 10%-30% with competitive interest pricings.
The launch of SocialPay rides on the back of the success of PayWithSpecta which has remarkably improved sales and revenue for business owners. The new product also features a data collection tool and an Escrow payment function which allows customers to receive payments back from merchants in the event of dissatisfaction with goods delivered.
