In what promises to be an innovative and potentially disruptive drive towards improving customer experience, Africa’s largest mobility and logistics companies, GIG Mobility (GIGM) and GIG Logistics (GIGL) are currently reviewing their payment options to include digital currency.
Already, an integration exercise is being worked out which will see GIGM and GIGL embrace DeFi, a decentralized finance system in the blockchain space, to complement the central bank-regulated fiat currency, which has been driving the firm’s transactions.
Naija News gathered from an internal source with knowledge of the new direction, that the forward-looking companies were perfecting their systems and processes for a launch, shortly, that would enable them to tap into the growing crypto-currency community in Nigeria.
This could make both organizations become the first crypto-backed mobility companies in Nigeria as the integration processes are said to be nearing the final stages and would soon go live. The innovation can also see the GIG Group making an in-route into rendering financial services.
According to an insider, “Extending a crypto wallet to our users aligns with our mission to propel freedom of movements and other economic/social activities leveraging technology. We want to give people the ability to move and do freely”.
Our source, however, hinted that they might not be integrating the usual crypto pack of Bitcoin, Ethereum and Dogecoin, but are instead developing a custom token that is expected to remain an interest-bearing asset for their one million combined users.
The innovation will provide the market-starved Nigerian crypto community a service they could disburse their digital coin on, as no company had offered to receive virtual assets as payment for transactions.
If eventually deployed, the token and crypto wallet might lead The GIG Group into making an inroad into financial services.
“Eventually both companies may be able to allow users perform multiple functions like paying bills, transfer assets, and money,” the source said.
GIG Logistics is following the footsteps of foreign logistics firms like TruckPay, Sino-Global, and Teahouse Transport who have embraced the new form of payment.
GIG Mobility and GIG Logistics are both subsidiaries of The GIG Group, a holding company with interests in key sectors of Nigeria’s economy.
Founded by Chidi Ajaere, the Group’s other business interests span power generation, financial services, and oil and gas industries.
This article was originally published on Naija News