Denis Opudo
A possible three out of five people have once fallen victims of whichever type of scam. There are several types of scams globally. This is not a regional problem but a global one. However, the technology revolution is helping people to move away from the problem. The high rise of the e-commerce market in Nigeria has assisted many Nigerian customers. The purchased products can be delivered to their doorsteps. This is without going through a long chain of distributors. However, there are many of online frauds and scams.
The discussion on the online forums like Nairaland proves that the scum is not yet over in Nigeria. A good example is a girl who was coned more than 50 thousand nairas through the Facebook ad. She paid half the price of the commodity. But she never got to hear from the seller anymore after she made the payment. Nigerians are more cautious while spending money on popular social media platforms. This is because of the saying once bitten twice shy. This leads to a reduction in business for genuine sellers.
However, Escroue startup comes in to solve the problem. According to the survey carried out by World Values Survey, most Nigerians do not trust each other. This comes after the bad experience through offline and online markets. The country’s economy is not able to grow further when citizens do not trust one another. This is one of the factors that are undermining the Nigerian economic growth. It makes it harder to attain its full commercial ability. This is despite the presence of youthful population.
Many payment solutions do not focus on building trust within its customers. Instead, they only work on making the payments convenient, faster and efficient. But Escroue launched to help build trust between people. The name Escroue came from a French word Escrow. The platform acts as a third party for two parties involved in a given transaction. The platform holds and regulates the payment of the money needed. The transaction can take place without risk of losing the money or goods through fraud. This is assured since money is put into Escrow before transactions.
