Thursday, July 31, 2025
24.1 C
Lagos

Interswitch Partner SlimTrader on MoBiashara Portal for Hotels

Interswitch, an Africa-focused digital payments and commerce company is excited to partner with SlimTrader, Sub-Saharan Africa’s leading turn-key ecommerce solution provider for businesses, on the deployment of a new Payment Monitoring Portal on the ‘MoBiashara for Hotels’ (MFH) platform.

With this partnership, SlimTrader will be better positioned to facilitate seamless transactions between Hotels and their guests.

Prior to the deployment of this feature on the MFH platform, hotels had no means of verifying payments for walk in guests from bookings on MFH’s partner travel booking sites. The lack of clarity meant that payments had to be verified via phone calls or emails – a very inefficient model.

This is the reason why Interswitch; the brand driven to innovate and push the boundaries of digital payments in Africa for the past 13 years, has partnered with SlimTrader to be the clearing house for payments from online bookings that are facilitated via SlimTrader’s MoBiashara for Hotels platform.

Below are excerpts from a chat with Mr. Akeem Lawal, the Divisional CEO, Switching and Processing, Interswitch Limited.

Hello sir. Please explain what the new Payment Monitoring Portal on SlimTrader’s MoBiashara for Hotels is?
The payment monitoring portal is another milestone in the road map of products and services we have jointly deployed with Slim Trader to enhance the business of local hotels across Africa.

This follows our partnership to enable booking and payments for hotels rooms online and at hotel front desks, the introduction of an integrated hotel management system as a service that allows hotels manage their inventory online and on premises as well as perform other value added services at the front desk like airtime purchase and even providing a prepaid card for foreign visitors to use while they are in Nigeria.

This portal will allow hotels see all bookings and payments made for hotels whether online or on premise, see the settlement due to them as well as reconcile bookings, stays and inventory.

What problems will the Payment Monitoring Portal solve?
The biggest problem that the Payment Monitoring Portal solves is the lack of visibility by hotels (their administrators and managers) into their financial position and condition at any point in time. For hotels connected to SlimTrader’s MFH, the portal provides real time display of all payments made to the hotel; whether those payments were made online on the hotel’s website, on other travel agency sites or in the hotel’s premises.

This means that those customers will no longer be confronted with situations in which a hotel is unable to confirm their payment. It also means that hotels will know exactly how much is in their account for settlement at each point in time, allowing them to plan their business more effectively.

What is Interswitch’s role in this partnership?
Interswitch provides the payment systems that integrate with MFH’s online and on premise platforms. We guaranty that once a payment is confirmed; the hotel will get their settlement the very next business day. We have partnered with SlimTrader to build this platform in a way that fully integrates into the Interswitch payment network, the most reliable payment network in Nigeria today.

Why have you chosen to partner with SlimTrader (MFH)?
Interswitch is constantly looking to partner with innovative companies that are solving payment challenges in Africa. SlimTrader is one of such companies; this is the reason why the company was one of the very first that Interswitch invested its $10million growth fund in to support their growth. We have since worked with SlimTrader to significantly enhance their value proposition in the hospitality space, co-creating several products, the latest of which is this Payment Monitoring Portal on SlimTrader’s MoBiashara for Hotels Platform.

When will this go live and how soon can hotels benefit from this?
The portal is already live and we have started offering it to hotels. Hotels can get this and the other innovative products and services as soon as they sign up for SlimTrader’s MFH platform.

What are the benefits to the end-user i.e. the hotel guests?
With this portal hotel guests never have to worry about discrepancies with hotel records with reservations made online. Paying online would be just as good as paying cash at the hotel premises. In fact, paying online might be better as the hotel guest can find discounts for booking and paying online on www.hotelnownow.com or other SlimTrader partner online travel agencies.

Now that Interswitch is stepping in as the ‘clearing house’ for all payments that come through SlimTrader (MFH) do you think Nigerian Hotels will be confident about receiving timely disbursement of their funds and on the basis of that trust alone, serve guests before they receive payment?

Interswitch is a global brand with a strong focus on Africa. We are trusted as the leading payment brand when it comes to making and receiving payments and settling those payments. This is because we have built and we operate a secure value driven payment systems that banks, governments, corporate organizations across several industry segments (from oil and gas to schools) have been using and trusting for more than 14 years.

This partnership is an opportunity to extend this value proposition to the hospitality industry as well. And like I said earlier this is just another milestone. There is more coming.

spot_img
spot_img
spot_img

Hot this week

Two NCDMB Leaders Bag Doctorate Degrees at UNIPORT Convocation

Two senior officials of the Nigerian Content Development and...

Sovereign Trust Insurance Reports 109% Insurance Revenue Growth in 2024

Sovereign Trust Insurance Plc recently released its 2024 audited...

NAICOM Issues Guidelines for Insurtech Operations Effective Aug 1

The National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) has officially issued operational...

Leadway Assurance: Official Insurance Partner of Lagos International Trade Fair 2025

L–R: Juliet Okon, Head, Alternative Channel and High Net-worth...

NNPCL: Port Harcourt Refinery Not for Sale

Group CEO, NNPC Limited, Engr. Bashir Bayo Ojulari addressing...

Topics

UNDP, Imo, Abia States Unveil N400m Economic Program to Support 11,000 Residents

As part of efforts to support communities deeply affected...

NSIA Group Acquires 4 Insurance Subsidiaries of SANLAM Group

Mr. Moruf Apampa Managing Director/CEO NSIA Insurance Limited NSIA Group to which...

AEDC Unveils Victor Osadolor as Chairman, Bada now Interim MD

Victor Osadolor The Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC) now has...

Global Wealth Rose to $250 Trn in 2020 Despite Covid-19 Pandemic

Global financial wealth reached an all-time high of $250...

CIIN Honours Muhammadu Buhari as Grand Patron

The Chartered Insurance Institute of Nigeria (CIIN) has officially...

ALLEGATIONS AGAINST SEPLAT, ROGER BROWN (CEO): BETWEEN FACTS AND FICTION

  Empower Nigeria, a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) dedicated to the...

NGX Highlights Opportunities in Green, Sukuk Bonds

Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) continues to drive the development...

NCC EVC: ‘Consumers Remain our Focal Point’

      Prof. Umar Danbatta Executive Vice Chairman/CEO Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) With consumers’...
spot_img

Related Articles

Popular Categories

spot_imgspot_img