CitiServe

CitiServe Limited, a member of the Vigeo group provides e-business solutions for the industry, developing applications for e-transactions, bill payments and numerous value added services that provide incomes, facilitates cashless payments via bank cards and via the web. Operations commenced over ten years ago and the company is one of the 5 PTSPs licensed by CBN to provide merchant management services accross the nation, deploying POS terminals for banks and managing the merchants using the terminals, one of which is the CitiServe OrangeBox. The OrangeBox is the preferred terminal modelled for the climate of Nigeria with its external shell for accidental drop, it has a very strong transceiver to pick weak signals for GPRS networks (MTN, Etisalat, Glo, Airtel) with options for CDMA. Other POS communication options include Wi-Fi, LAN and dual SIM. The Value Added Services include VTU, Bill Payment, Power Sales, In-branch solutions, Ticketing, Fuel Station Applications, School Applications, Religion Applications. At the onset, our Point of sale terminals worked offline and accepted cash payments. The process was upgraded in 2006 to online product loading, but still cash payments, while the upgrade for bank card acceptance was on-going. We partnered with Lagos, Bauchi, Oyo States alongside NGOs such as Cowan, Napep, and NUC in several states including the FCT in Nigeria. At a point before the card accepting upgrade, CitiServe had close to 19,480 OrangeBoxes in circulation, more than all the banks combined had. We still have a database of these partners and work with several of them through the transition. CitiServe repositioned in 2001 to play a pivotal role in the Nigerian e-payment landscape with the licensing by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to operate as a Payment Terminal Service Provider (PTSP) for the ongoing Cashless Nigeria project. Today we provide e-payment support services to financial institution in Nigeria and the OrangeBox accepts all Nigerian bank cards which include Visa, Mastercard, Genesis, Verve and Etranzact. It is the first Nigerian point of sale terminal to connect directly to the central switch, the NIBSS without a bridge. CitiServe Limited has JV partners in IT and has over the years upgraded and increased the number of products that it carries; our Value Added Services (VAS) on its distribution channel for PIN based products which include credit on pay TV, GSM, ticketing, Esusu, IGR, Smart pump sales at petrol stations etc and recently included tokens for prepaid meters, a service that commenced in partnership with Global Utilities Management Company, (GUMCO). GUMCO has operated in the distribution sector of The Benin Electricity Distribution Company since 2007. CitiServe is the first and remains the only company in Nigeria to introduce vending machines for the distribution of refreshing drinks and snack. These are located at strategic location in both Lagos and Abuja in corporate offices, banks, hospitals, government parastaters and educational institutions. The vending machines accept both cash and card payment including the CitiServe Card, a close `Purse`, pre-loaded for convenience and access 24/7. Our focus is on the provision of convenient access to e-transactions, promoting the cashless strategy and increasing financial inclusion nationwide.