On Saturday March 30th, Flutterwave announced its latest technology — GlovePay — which enables Nigerians to pay for goods and services through mere handshakes; literally.
According to Flutterwave, the technology is actually a wearable glove, which comes in handy under three familiar circumstances-
- When users cannot find their ATM cards to make payments because they forgot them,
- When PoS machines are down and cannot accept payments, and
- When users do not have “change”.
The company says the gloves are available to the first 1000 people to create new accounts on their website. In any case, the gloves will eventually be given for free to all customers.
“We’re excited to unveil an amazing technology that’s the result of years of painstaking work. Say hello to #GlovePay.
“”I don’t have change,” “I forgot my ATM card,” “Our PoS is down,” are now outdated sentences. If you have our glove and the merchant has one, all you need to do is shake hands and payment is done. Amazing, right?”
Nigerians react
They think it’s April Fool stuff: Because this technology seems too good to be real, Nigerians are calling it Flutterwave‘s version of April Fool. This is because even though Flutterwave tried to explain (with the use of a YouTube video) how this so called technology works, it really did not explain its actual feasibility.
https://twitter.com/JoAccord/status/1112248793133735936
Important questions were raised: It is easy to be carried away by the euphoria of this technology. After all, it’s like the thing of which Hollywood SCI-FIs are made of. But when you calm down for one second and think about, you begin to raise many questions.
First of all, if GlovePay is going to be distributed for free by Flutterwave, then how is the company going to make money from it?
Most importantly, when paying with GlovePay, how will the technology know how much exactly to deduct from customers’ accounts?
It has to be… how will they glove know how much to deduct?
— Victory Akaniru (@VIC3_DOIT) March 31, 2019
Other people gave more reasons why the invention simply can’t work in Nigeria – According to one comment on the Twitter thread, Nigerians are too fetish (not sexual wise) to be shaking everyone just for the sake of payment.
Believe it or not, the average Nigerian is fetish. The idea of shaking every Tom, dick and Harry just because of payment won’t really sit well with most.
Now, let’s talk about that iPhone X this keke driver is using 😂— 🦉 (@ManLikeMarv_) March 31, 2019
More reasons why GlovePay is “unrealistic”
- When happens when there is an epidemic like Ebola?
- Why should any sane person forget to take along their ATM cards but remember to wear a glove meant for payment?
- What happens when the glove gets dirty or is stolen?
It actually makes no business sense, if I'm going to get the alert on/in my phone, Why don't you just scan my phone qr code and pay or use USSD to pay?
— LightBlocks (@lb_trades) March 31, 2019
So I’ll forget atm at home but remember to take or wear glove outside, inside this hot Lagos. 🙄
— Rotimi. (@Olowo_Rotimi) March 31, 2019
Why so serious……….
Glove payment has so many downsides including stolen gloves, dirty gloves among others….it's so so not secure…..lol.
— D⚡️ (@destinyspoke) March 31, 2019
What happens when there's Ebola?
— Tolu (@mrtoluabiodun) March 31, 2019
What do you think? Is this for real or is it a dead idea?
Lol Dead on Arrival.
— Rotimi. (@Olowo_Rotimi) March 31, 2019