That’s right. Starting from the 1st of November and through to the end of January next year, GTBank has pledged to give you cash back on your card when you use your GTBank Naira Mastercard at any POS terminal-wielding concern in Nigeria, including but not limited to supermarkets, stores, filling stations, hotels and restaurants.
How much cash? Well, we don’t know that yet. What we do know is that you become eligible for the bonanza only after you have made a minimum of five electronic POS purchases on your card in one month, after which you will begin to receive cash back on additional purchases. Sounds like a lot of work (five purchases a month, really?) for an unspecified reward, but hey, a freebie’s a freebie.
GTBank has long been a vocal pioneer of electronic transactions, waaaay before the formal April launch of the Cash-Less society pilot in Lagos even, with a slew of products that encourage their customers to re choose their cards over cash. For instance, with products like Fast Track and the ability to make online payments via their partnership with MasterCard, a GTBank debit card was for a long time one of the only cards that went beyond being a mere “ATM card”, a piece of plastic that is only good for sticking in ATM machines. We also know that their internet banking platform is wildly popular with customers, making the GTBank website the 13th most visited in Nigeria, and of course the number one banking website in the country. In comparison, the second most visited banking website in Nigeria is Zenith bank — at number 136.
Of course, this latest campaign invites us to look at how electronic POS terminals have been faring in the wild. In spite of an enthusiastic roll-out, however, it would seem that uptake and levels of public acceptance have been underwhelming, given the various hair-tearing technical issues that the medium is reportedly fraught with. As a result, buyers are wary of using it, and the machines have largely fallen into disuse with merchants.
So as it currently stands, the idea of e-POS payments looks to be floating dead in the water, not to mention that it is also robbing precious wind out of the sails of the CBN’s cash-less initiative. If you’ve been following those developments, you’ll recall that the scheme is projected to commence in other strategic parts of the country come January next year.
Against this backdrop, what can one make of the GTBank POS promo? I’m inclined to wonder if it might not be so much a promo as much as it is an experiment with which they hope to learn something of customer habits and motivations. I’ve said elsewhere that a great way to encourage POS/Cashless adoption would be to introduce incentives. It is thus interesting to see GTBank stepping up once again into the vanguard and leading with such an idea, even if it’s for a limited time, after which they will no doubt have gathered sufficient data with which they would re-calibrate their subsequent strategy.
Of course my theory could be a bit off center, and GTBank might just be giving out another benign freebie to reward its loyal customers. But it really were an experiment, do you think that the bank might learn something that will help validate the whole cash-less society religion and maybe even help the CBN recruit more converts?
I, for one, am all for cash-less and things, but I’m still yet to use a POS machine. The option is just not ubiquitous, and I’m not eager to embark on an active search for one that works in order to use it. I doubt that the promise of getting cash back would change my disposition into that of a POS machine hunter — and don’t forget the five purchases a month minimum rule — but of course, I’m speaking solely for myself here. A few chronic shoppers out there might appreciate it.
[image via Flickr/Iain Tait]
