It was a cool evening on Tuesday August 2, 2022 at Bature Brewery. The atmosphere was also right for lifestyle and leisure lovers at the cozy outlet located at Etim Inyang Street, Victoria Island, Lagos.
They were all united in one cause; unwinding and networking in a very convivial environment, without watching their back.
Of course, they were youthful and they had time to express their youthfulness, but positively.
That was the evening; environment and the conviviality that Guaranty Trust Holding Company Plc (GTCO), a youthful company though, decided to bring the essence of Squad to a live audience.
Squad, the new payment unit of the holding company structure, is a product that provides payment solutions to businesses, and it is courtesy of HabariPay Limited, a subsidiary of Guaranty Trust Holding Company.
The new payment unit comes with exciting features both offline and online payment acquisition channels like the Payment Gateway and the Soft POS.
With Squad, getting or handling a POS, the software Point of Sale (Soft POS) is easier amid allowing merchants and vendors to accept payments directly on their phones or devices without the need for any additional software.
GTCO also enumerated several value-added services of Squad such as bulk payment collection, automated reconciliation of offline and online payments, fraud prevention tools and instant settlement among others.
“Squad is that single product that brings technology and user experience and satisfaction for a meet-and-greet. The features are designed for and targeted at micro and small business owners like Kiosk owners and petty traders, medium business owners like digital sellers, online vendors; Tech talents; and even big enterprises”, staff of Squad said the evening outing.
But a practical note, the meet-and-greet objective was met with the many exchanges among the customers and the business outfits that evening. From Bature Brewery, El Padrino, lounges, restaurants and bars within that premises, it was a win-win situation for all, customers were satisfied with the offerings, paying seamlessly with Squad, while the businesses had good patronage.
Speaking on the payment product and impact on her business, Uzoamaka Umebinyuo, MD/CEO, El Padrino, a contemporary restaurant that specialises in Mexican cuisine, commended GTCO for introducing Squad, a payment offering, she described as solution product many business owners who have been facing payment challenges, have been waiting for.
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“One of my customers said that Squad is the first time in Nigeria he had a tap and pay in transaction. This is a tap and go kind of payment and it is a big deal”, the El Padrino MD/CEO said.
Umebinyuo, who grew up in California, where she worked at several levels in the restaurant business confessed that using Squad at her Taco Tuesday Mexican cuisine offering was a big deal, noted that, with Squad, her outfit has 200 people that night, who are going to interact with tap and pay for the first time in Lagos.
“It is a big deal, especially for those who are exposed to foreign payment products, having tap and pay here is one the things that make them believe that Nigeria is getting easier to navigate”, she said.
For security of the product, she expressed confidence in GTCO’s strong brand and security guarantee as obtainable in the bank’s other products.
“When GTCO does something, it comes with excellence. I don’t think Squad will have any challenge like products by other financial companies”, she concluded.
In line with that, GTCO assured that Squad has the highest level of security and comes at no cost to customers.
Instead of walking into the bank to ask for a POS, just download the Squad app on your phone that is NFC enabled and you will have a POS that you can use to accept payment anytime and any day with your credit card”, a member of Squad team explained at the event.
Meanwhile, earlier that day, the Squad team went out to have a feel of how customers have been enjoying the tool and the observations were impressive.
The fact that the people the team met were able to use their cards to tap on their phones and make payments as fast as possible and yet secured transactions, was exciting for the team.
