MASTERCARD Worldwide has conducted intensive training for its customers among the financial institutions and merchants in Nigeria in in order to raise awareness of payment cards as a safe and convenient way to pay for goods and services.In addition, the training focussed on demonstrating global payments industry best practices with regard to issuance and acceptance of payment cards by banks and merchants.The three-day training sessions, sponsored by MasterCard, was attended and supported locally by Guaranty Trust Bank, Skye Bank, First Bank, United Bank for Africa (UBA), Bank PHB, Intercontinental Bank, First City Monument Bank (FCMB), Ecobank, and Zenith Bank. The event was held at Eko Hotel in Victoria Island, Lagos.At the workshop, MasterCard delivered training sessions on issues confronting the global payment card industry, including: cards security features, types of card fraud, merchant best practices, charge backs, the Nigerian payment market and general customer service trends.Payment cards such as debit cards and credit cards, and security technologies such as Chip and PIN, and Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards (PCI DSS) all contribute to making payments more convenient, safer and more cost effective than carrying cash or using cheques, says Daniel Monehin, Area Head, East and West Africa and Indian Ocean Islands, MasterCard Worldwide, he said.Continuing, he said: However, there is a clear need to raise awareness of how to accept and use payment cards responsibly and to ensure that merchants are quickly able to identify genuine payment cards when they are presented at point of sale for payment.In addition, for the rollout of payment cards to be successful, banks and merchants need to continue to work together to ensure that their systems work seamlessly and that products released into the markets are locally-relevant and will add value to their customer bases.As an active participant in helping markets develop their local payment systems, MasterCards efforts aim to help every segment of the Nigerian payments industry to offer safe and convenient payment alternatives to their customers.There is nothing more critical than keeping businesses secure from fraud and facilitating the effective rollout of safe and convenient payment systems based on industry best practices. MasterCard continues to develop and implement new programmes to advance data protection and promote the responsible use of payment cards, and remains fiercely committed to advancing secure payments systems throughout Nigeria, explains Monehin.The training sessions aimed at educating Nigerian merchants and financial institutions on how to make their systems as secure as possible to ensure a safe transacting environment for themselves and their customers, he concluded.
Click here to read full news..
