Fintech firm Kuda is set to introduce a SoftPOS feature that will enable users to receive card payments directly on their phones. The introduction of this feature will lead to the termination of 25 free transfers every month for business accounts.
The company said in a statement,
“We built Kuda Business to support Nigerian entrepreneurs like you, and that means giving you the best services we can. To keep giving you those services reliably and adding useful features like our new SoftPOS to the Kuda Business app, we need to make some carefully considered changes.”
Business accounts on the app will now pay a flat rate of 10 Naira for every transfer no matter how much they send, while holders of personal accounts will continue to enjoy the free monthly transfers. Recall that in 2019, Kuda introduced 25 free monthly transfers, each of which cost an additional N52.50, enabling customers to save up to N15,000 yearly.
The new Soft POS feature also known as Software Point of Sale, allows users to accept EMV contactless cards, which turns their regular smartphones or tablets into a secure payment terminal. While any Android phone running version 8.0 or higher with an NFC module can use it, payments can be made using a plastic card or its equivalent. The feature does not require any extra hardware, as only the merchant handset is enough.
Check out the advantages of the SoftPOS feature;
Merchant Perspective
- No extra hardware is needed
- High scalability
- Mobility
- Low monthly costs
- Ideal for mobile sales force, SME
- Ideal as a tool for quick check-out
Acquirer Perspective
- Remote and cheap onboarding
- Low terminal cost
- Very low maintenance cost
- Fast setup
- Very low service staffing requirements
- High flexibility for the merchant
Investors King understands that the Software Point of Sale or SoftPoS is a revolutionary new technology that is a new development in the mobile payments market, suitable for any market with high penetration of contactless and mobile wallet payments. It was developed to reach more merchants, mobile POS terminals (mPOS).
These new mPOS terminals has reduced the cost for merchants and addressed the problem of having to have dedicated lines to connect to banks. Another trend in the POS terminals is to add additional functionalities and bring more value to merchants allowing them to run additional applications on the POS terminal.