Months after e-commerce giant Amazon made a move to cut ties with payment company Visa, over the cost of transaction processing fees, the two companies have reached an agreement to continue their partnership.

Visa has made many changes to its business to accommodate the changes in the global financial ecosystem. That includes onboarding crypto currency as means of payment through partnership with blockchain-powered cross-border payment facilitating companies.

The agreement means that the duo will continue to run their businesses without disruption. The cryptocurrency industry with its DeFi system has not only simplified payment, but also made it cheaper, especially cross-border payment. This, in addition to the burgeoning fintech industry, has created more competition, as Reuters noted among other factors in the report below, forcing traditional payment companies to reconsider the cost of their transaction processing fees.

Details of the deal were not disclosed but Visa and other payments cards have faced increased pressure about their fees as more shoppers have turned online during the pandemic. The spat had highlighted the growing clout of retailers in the fee battle.

Amazon had said in November it was considering dropping Visa as partner on its U.S. co-branded credit card, after earlier confirming it would stop accepting Visa credit cards in the UK because of high transaction fees.

The agreement announced on Thursday means Amazon customers can continue using Visa credit cards in its stores, the e-commerce group said in a statement.

Neither side said what fees would be levied in future – an issue which came to the fore particularly in Britain after an EU-enforced cap on card fees is no longer in place following Brexit.

The dispute between Amazon and Visa in the UK was seen as a bad sign for the card industry by some analysts, who argued it could presage a fight in the much bigger U.S. market.

British lawmakers said last month they planned to scrutinize increases in the fees Visa and Mastercard charge businesses after the country’s payments regulator found no evidence to justify the rises.

Last October, Visa began charging 1.5% of transaction value for credit card payments made online or over the phone between the UK and EU, and 1.15% for debit card transactions, up from 0.3% and 0.2%, respectively.

Average credit card processing fees across the industry range between 1.5% and 3.5%, according to analysts.

Retailers have in the past accepted credit card processing charges as an inevitable cost, but that could be changing because of innovations and increased consumer choice in the payments sector.

Credit cards accounted for a third of North American e-commerce spending in 2020, according to payments giant WorldPay, but mobile payment options like Venmo and “buy now, pay later” (BNPL) financing plans are gaining ground.

While alternative payments have been growing for years, the pandemic accelerated a downward trend in credit card applications and boosted the popularity of BNPL financing.

Credit cards’ share of North American e-commerce spending declined 7% last year, according to WorldPay, while BNPL’s share increased 78%.

Other big retailers have in the past settled fee disputes with Visa after announcing they were going to quit taking Visa credit cards in narrow segments of their businesses.

Walmart Inc’s (WMT.N) unit in Canada, for example, said in 2016 it would stop accepting Visa credit cards after being unable to reach agreement on fees. Seven months later the companies said they had settled the matter.

Visa said it was pleased to have reached a broad, global agreement with Amazon.

“This agreement includes the acceptance of Visa at all Amazon stores and sites today, as well as a joint commitment to collaboration on new product and technology initiatives,” a Visa spokesperson said in an email.

I do not hesitate to tender an extensive and exclusive commentary each time I take note of any issue or policy pertaining to education. This feature of mine might not be unconnected with my explicit love for impaction of knowledge on mankind.

In various quarters, it is being opined and echoed that education is the key to any success room, hence ought to be regarded as an inevitable pathway towards attaining one’s anticipated height. But I see it as the success itself, because anyone who acquires it is already ostensibly inside the said room.

The above assertions are the reason in advanced societies, educational institutions are handled with absolute care, thus given every attention they deserve. In such part of the world, funding of the institution by the concerned authorities is never compromised. It suffices to say that such a gesture is invariably seen as a priority.

This is why developing countries like Nigeria that are apparently following the footsteps of these climes as mentioned above in regard to learning don’t seem to overlook establishments such as the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB).

JAMB, which remains a household name in the Nigerian polity as regards education, has in recent times been making great waves in terms of innovations and enhancement driven by technology. The rebranding mechanism has continued unabated till date.

Its introduction of the ongoing Computer-Based Test (CBT) four years ago under the watch of Prof. Dibu Ojerinde – the then Registrar – was not unlike a mere concept that would never be physically felt. It was to the onlookers’ utmost amazement when the initiative fully metamorphosed into obvious reality.

Initially, the CBT was meant to be optional or elective, whereby the prospective candidates were permitted to freely choose between it and the then usual Paper-Based Test (PBT). In other words, the CBT mode was being test-run or put to the test during that era, precisely in 2015.

At the time, having commended the tech-driven innovation without much ado, I critically and extensively recommended therein the possible ways the JAMB could advance in the initiative. Other concerned Nigerians who were equally keen to educational matters, also followed suit.

I was so impressed when I realized that the newly introduced mode of testing had eventually become non-elective or compulsory among the admission seekers. Every well-meaning education stakeholder welcomed the idea which was aimed at ushering in a zero-malpractice and marking-with-ease era.

Since the full emergence of the CBT, all forms of examination malpractice have seemingly been a thing of the past. Similarly, contrary to the manual pattern of marking formerly in vogue, the activity is now done with great ease thereby making it a labour effective scheme. Among all, results could at the moment be released by the board as soon as possible, even within a few hours after the exams.

Several improvements regarding the CBT have hitherto been recorded under the current leadership of Prof. Ishaq Oloyede. In spite of a few technical hitches observed in the process, the e-mode testing has thus far made significant impacts to the delight of most Nigerians.

In the same vein, it’s equally worthy of note that an electronic registration method has fully been implemented by the JAMB. By this routine, e-mode materials are issued to the prospective candidates having purchased the e-form (e-PIN) as well as successfully registered.

For instance, only digital devices such as Compact Disc (CD) containing e-Syllabus and e-Brochure are given to the applicants, not manual booklets as done in the past. And, the payments can be made via various channels including banks, the Point of Sale (POS) machine, Automated Teller Machine (ATM), JAMB’s online portal, or the mobile phones.

In the e-registration for the 2018/2019 exams, that lasted between 10th January and 21st February, 2019, all applicants were entitled to electronic Personal Identification Numbers simply known as e-PINs the moment they made their payments.

The pattern continues till date. Each e-PIN, which is sent to the person’s personal phone number and grants him/her access to the registration portal, is reportedly tied to individual profile, hence not transferable.

This implies that any e-PIN is to be delivered electronically to the applicant, and not to be handwritten. Before going for the e-PIN, the applicant must have obtained his/her profile code via the cell phone number used for the preliminary exercise.

Prospective candidates are, therefore, warned to keep their respective e-PINs secret and safe toward averting any form of hacking by unscrupulous and unpatriotic elements who do not mean well for the exercise and the country at large. They are in this regard advised to see the e-PINs as strictly personal.

It’s noteworthy that only JAMB approved CBT centres nationwide are eligible to carry out the e-registration process. Each applicant is consequently required to proceed to any of these accredited centres. They have to present the e-PIN for completion of their respective registrations.

The full name of the prospective candidate as entered/typed towards acquiring the profile code, or during the preliminary stage of the e-registration, would automatically be displayed on the input of the e-PIN by the CBT centre staff.

It’s equally worth noting that anyone can also register in any of the JAMB recognized foreign countries, which include Ivory Coast, Ghana, Ethiopia, Benin Republic, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, England, and Beau in the U.S.A.

The rigorous e-security processes currently being undergone by the applicants have thus far gone a long way in curtailing different kinds of frauds and malpractices that were ab initio in existence. It has ensured that only the persons who applied for the exams are granted the access to the e-mode question scripts.

The overall tech-driven innovations recently introduced by the JAMB will continue to guarantee a high level of credibility and transparency in respect of the conduct of the entrance examination in its entirety. The institution is therefore encouraged to sustain the enhancements.

The JAMB, however, needs to be mindful of some key technical factors. The board must employ a strict strategic approach with a view to ensuring that uninterrupted power supply is made available by the various approved CBT centres.

They should also be directed to contract reliable and well experienced Information Technology (IT) experts to ensure deployment of standard and tested softwares on their computers on a regular basis.

Inter alia, adequate human security must be put in place to safeguard the electronic gadgets in the centres. The JAMB needs to equally inculcate these strategic measures in its headquarters towards averting any challenge either during the e-registration or the CBT.

It’s invariably great to make any laudable policy and innovation but far greater to painstakingly consider its apt sustenance afterwards.

If you have watched the current trending Netflix Documentary “The Tinder Swindler” you will be very much familiar with the phrase “my enemies are after me”. This line happens to be everyone’s favorite including the admirable suspended  super cop, Abba Kyari. This is the line used by Simon Leviev, the main character in the documentary whenever he wants to defraud his victims. 

The story of Simon Leviev is an interesting one that Netflix had to make a documentary out of.  Simon Leviev is a serial fraudster who uses fake affluence and “borrow pose” material things to entrap his victims who are mostly women; he will make them to fall in love with him and his faked affluent lifestyle, afterwards he will start demanding money from  the unsuspecting women using different tricks like “his enemies are after him”, his enemies are out to kill him and his bodyguard, his bodyguard have been shot, etc and this will force his victims to be sympathetic and worried about him and give him whatever he asks for. 

Little did we know that the erstwhile commander of the IRT is a huge fan of Simon Leviev for him to have been heard to quote the same line after he was arrested and handed over to the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) for the offense of cocaine trading and drug trafficking which he was caught red handed.

During one of the interrogations, he was heard to have quoted the famous Simon Leviev line: my enemies, the eastern security network (ESN) are after me, they are out to destroy my life and my reputation, they are the ones setting me up and making traps for me. 

The suspended senior police officer was not detailed enough to share with his interrogators how far the Eastern Security Network (ESN) his so-called enemies have gone in chasing after him. Are they the ones that gave him wraps of cocaine to sell for them? Are they also the ones that asked him to try to bribe an NDLEA Officer, he also didn’t give out details for the public to know if the ESN are the ones that linked him up with the international fraudster, Hushpuppi for them to become business partners and collaborators.

The suspended DCP should do well and give more details about all these to the public if he really wants the public to be sympathetic with him that he is a pious man but his enemies are the ones that are actually after him to destroy him and his super cop’s legacy.

Recall that the super cop was first linked with the Hushpuppi’s fraud empire which led to his suspension from the police force, on Monday, the 14th of February 2022,  he was declared wanted by the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency for drug related offenses. He has since then been arrested and in detention.