Dave Baro-Thomas

The Nigerian banking industry, on hindsight, boasts of a number of financial solutions targeted at individuals and corporate organizations. While some of these products are very innovative, functional and beneficial, others are merely arm-chair concepts that lack a veritable reflection of market realities and fall short of customers expectations in terms of value deliverables, on the long run.

The introduction of First Pay as a financial solution from the stable of First Bank is an attempt by the bank to provide a worthwhile experience for its customers and non-customers alike as the nation aggressively pursues its “cash-lite” economic policy.

First Pay is a web-based financial product that offers FirstBank’s customers access to receive or effect payments directly from the comforts of their offices or homes any time of the day (24/7). The product touted to be a secure and an efficient e-payment platform, provides seamless online and real time possibilities for corporate organizations and individuals.

However, for organizations with broad-based Internet challenges, the system is designed in such a way to accommodate such organizations so that they could also benefit from the unique offerings of First Pay.

This financial product is very ideal for organizations that receive or make large/bulk payments in form of staff salaries or payments to contractors/suppliers. In addition, First Pay offers quoted companies a unique platform to handle their payments for e-dividend, pensions, and any other form of bulk payments irrespective of which bank the accounts are domiciled.

For instance, as an e-payment solution to fast track salary payment for staff, all an organization needs to do is simply log into the First Pay platform, initiate an instruction by uploading the instruction in an approved file format.

Following the upload, the transaction authorizer is notified by e-mail and/or SMS of the forwarded payment authorization code which enables the authorizer to approve payments, with corresponding debit and credit entries passed automatically. Once this is done, members of staff could make instant withdrawal without having to wait a day or more for posting to be done before such withdrawals are made.

One of the highpoints of this product is that it completely eliminates the burden of issuing multiple cheques to third parties hence it also by-passes the delays associated with the clearing house. It is worth mentioning that this new-found freedom does not necessarily give room for sloppiness in the system.

The entire process runs in a very secure environment with foolproof control and authentication of all transactions. Much more, each corporate organization is given the opportunity to have multiple levels of approval system such that no single individual could manipulate the process since the system will require all authorizing officers to give their approvals, no matter their geographical locations as no single individual can initiate and complete a transaction.

First Pay is said to be very convenient, time-saving, economical and very innovative. The platform is available to setup clients through a browser and does not require any special infrastructure or additional investment on the part of the client other than an Internet connection; and customers are charged very small amounts on transactions.

Broadly speaking, any corporate organization that has deployed the First Pay platform can have access to a number of financial solutions and these include, a full view consolidated account balances across banks from the comfort of their office; i.e. customers could see their accounts balances in other banks through the First Pay platform.

They can also issue and upload e-Cheques for vendors and suppliers and the values are credited automatically and where such transactions are not effected for whatever reason, the customer gets instant feedback on such unsuccessful payments. This platform also allows for smooth operation of standing orders, e-salaries and could also be used for corporate collections.

This financial product ensures that payment details such as incoming or outgoing payments are properly captured and payment schedules are also clearly presented, thus aiding bank reconciliation processes and audit inquiries.

The benefits of the First Pay financial platform include that it puts in the hand of corporate organizations the ease of initiating and concluding all its payments without having to rely on its branch (FirstBank) to handle the processes. This is indeed a value offering as these organizations could treat their transactions with the urgency they require.

This new-found freedom induces efficient and timely payment process to beneficiaries at very critical times. Being Internet driven, approval of payments can be done from anywhere in the world regardless of the location of the authorizers. Configured to offer convenience and being very easy to use, First Pay is like a one-stop shop financial solution/product for any organization worth its salt.

For a bank that has existed for well over a century, FirstBank has little or nothing to prove in Nigeria’s banking space, but interestingly, the bank has kept pace with stark realities and challenges as they arise in the financial sector, today.