CWG Plc pledges to offer ATM as service to financial institutions
Computer Warehouse Group Plc, Nigeria’s foremost indigenous IT Company with operations in four African countries has declared that it will be offering ATM as a service, with the ultimate aim of delivering result to financial service institutions, which enable them to focus on their core operations.
Mr. James Agada, Chief Executive Officer of the Company, disclosed this while making a presentation at a recent workshop organised by CWG Plc for ICT Editors in Nigeria at the company’s headquarter in Lagos.
ATM as a service, according to Agada, would cover up for some of the lapses associated with the use of ATM in Nigeria. He added that ATM remains the most significant and primary agent of financial inclusion in Nigeria, which give financial service to a greater number of Nigerians, even in the rural areas.
Agada affirmed that some of the agency banking are most times not reliable, and currently, he said banks in Nigeria spend on an average about N637, 047 on a monthly basis over 5 years on ATM outright purchase, translating to N38 million in those 5 years.
“But with ATM as a service initiative, where the outcome is only expected, the IT integration company can help the banks make a saving of a minimum of 20 percent in comparison.
“In other words, CWG can offer the banks NGN 509,638 on a monthly basis over 5 years. Meaning, the banks would be spending N 31 million over 5 years instead of N38 million.
“The ATM as a service initiative is outcome based, whereby it is expected that you pay for the outcome and not the technology. It frees your enterprise to focus on what it does and not the technology itself. We believe that the initiative will increase bank ATM deployment and coverage and ensure cost savings based on ATM volumes,” he said.
Agada assured that the initiative would help increase ATM in the country to the expected 60,000, instead of the 15,000 that are presently deployed across Nigeria, where CWG is servicing 4,500.
CWG boss said the company will provide the service with its vast infrastructure that ensures efficient service delivery to its clients across Africa.
He list the infrastructure to include: technical service centre (ATM repair centre); Tier 3 data centre; satellite uplink facility; customer service centre; monitoring centre; training centre; application delivery and support team, and software development team.
“We have the expertise housed in CWG Plc, which ensures that we are able to provide the following services: ATM as a service; ATM Deployment, monitoring solution, logistics, handling of spares / parts replacement, secondary power solution & support, value added services, call centre services, multiple vendor Management & Software upgrades,” he assured.
Commenting on some of the security challenges surrounding ATM and how best they can be resolved, Agada said, though technology will not stop all kinds of ATM fraud, it’s imperative to have cameras, anti phishing devices and encrypting technology installed on the ATM.
He noted that this would go a long way to check the excesses of the would-be fraudsters.
