If you aren’t conversant with money transfer yet as a Nigerian, then you probably have a handful of experience to go through.
By any means, you’ve played in the money transfer industry, consequently encountered hitches en-route to receiving your transfers here in Nigeria, you’re probably considering receiving money from abroad for the first time, being sent by a loved one?
Should any of the above thick the boxe for you, I feel overwhelmingly safe to say “you have arrived at the right place and should not search further.”
Over the cause of my experience as a money transfer officer, a good number of money transfer consumers have at one point or the other, fail to claim their transfers for obvious reasons I will state here.
Before I continue, it becomes necessary to list a number of money transfer platforms abroad that could be used in sending funds to Nigeria and other African or European countries.
The below products apply:
• Western union• MoneyGram international
• Ria money
• WorldRemit
• Transfast
• SHIFT transfer
• Remitly
• Webfast etc, to mention just a few of these products.
While other products may represent their businesses, Western union and MoneyGram remain about the most popular of them all, thus the most sought after.
It conveys no mistake to say that for every 100 transfers sent to Nigeria, Africa and other parts of the world, Western union and MoneyGram makes up about 90% of these transfers.
These are the popular industry giants, in view of this, we’ll discuss them extensively here.
Who then sends money to Nigeria/Africa and the world?
Funds are usually sent by your loved ones (brothers, sisters, uncles, friends, acquaintances etc).Assuming you have someone staying abroad say the U.S.A, UK, Italy, Canada, France, Russia etc, and such person decides to or have a need to send you money, the fastest means to do this, is through money transfer platforms like Western union or MoneyGram.
How then will they send the money?
To use western union or MoneyGram service, your sender has to first and foremost sign up if they wish to use the app version of any of the above listed services.Otherwise, they’ll have to visit the agent location in town to complete these transfers.
Are there details required?
Yes of course, the sender will have to visit the agent location with the following;
• Valid means of identification as approved by the government of his/her country of residence
• The money he/she wishes to send across to the receiver, alongside a little fee as they apply
• The sender will have to make available the receiver’s details in the following category (Name as appeared in the receiver’s ID card, receiver’s country).
Having fulfilled the above, the transfer will be effected, then revert to the sender.
However, the sender may choose to send the money via the money transfer app as it applies to the very transaction they so wish to pitch with, on successful transfer, transaction detail will be generated automatically.
Onboarding the app, the sender should be able to effect transfers from his/her comfort at home, anywhere and anytime of the day.
Is the sender getting any detail from the agent on completion?
As expected, the agent should make available the transaction details to the sender immediately after the transfer has been completed, these details include:• Reference number for MoneyGram or Money Transfer Control Number (MTCN) for westernunion. The reference number should be eight digits for MoneyGram and ten digits for Western union, those are the unique identities.
• The receiver details (receiver’s complete name as contained in the transaction)
• Transaction amount/how much the receiver is entitled to in his/her home country.
What then should the sender do after receiving the above details?
At this point, the transaction is ready for pick-up at the receiver’s location, but things may not proceed until the sender forwards the transaction details received earlier from the agent to the receiver accordingly.
These details are;
• The transaction reference number or MTCN as explained earlier
• The sender name in full as written or profiled on the transfer
• The exact expected amount as paid in, in the sender’s residence country/agent location.
Again, I must reiterate that reference number or MTCN must be handled with utmost care while forwarding same to the receiver.
It must not be sent via email message, your mail could be hacked and such sensitive information could get to unauthorized users, which may lead to loss of funds.
Ideally, send through phone call or Whatsapp, better still any medium that’s less vulnerable to be hacked, boys are not smiling I tell you.
Let me share a scenario with you:
As a money transfer officer with one of the commercial banks in Nigeria, I had this customer who usually sends money to Taiwan.He’s a business man, a merchant at that.
In one of the routine transactions I have to send money to his supplier in Taiwan, having concluded on the arrangement with his supplier, they reached a consensus that his supplier should send a preferred name he wishes to receive MoneyGram transfers with in Taiwan.
Ignorantly enough, they exchange this detail via email message, little did he know that his email has been hacked, consequently every conversation with the supplier filters into the hands of unauthorized users.
The hackers swiftly replied his mail with two receiver names in Taiwan, thinking he received the details from his supplier of many years in business relationship.
He went ahead to issue me the said receivers names to effect the transfers in his order.
I acted in line with his order, completed four transactions two in each name within a reasonable turnaround time.
He again forwarded these details via his email, the hackers received and acknowledged same.
They went ahead to claim the transfers immediately without further delays.
Only for my customer to realize weeks later that he’s been dealing with fraudsters who succeeded in hacking his email account in disguise, it was such a painful experience.
Having said that for your alertness, let’s get to final section of this guide.
How to receive money transfer in Nigeria
It’s assumed that you’ve received the transfer details from the sender who is based abroad, kindly walk straight to any bank that offers money transfer services, usually Polaris bank, First bank, Union bank, UBA etcDo afford to visit the bank with your verifiable ID card which could fall in any of these category;
• International passport
• Driver’s License
• National ID card
• Voter’s card and
• BVN
Note: Some banks do not accept the NIMS national ID card anymore, so have this at the back of your mind early enough.
Additionally, to receive MoneyGram transfers in most banks, they will have to print a verified copy of your BVN from the bank’s data base straight. This is the only approved ID card for MoneyGram transactions at this time.
At the bank, you will be asked to fill either a western union of MoneyGram receive form as it applies.
In the receive form, you will need to complete the following details;
• Receiver name
• Date of birth where applicable
• Address
• Occupation
• Phone number
• Bank account number where applicable
• Reference number or MTCN where applicable
• Sender name
• Amount to be received.
• Then append your signature in the column provided.
On completion of the money transfer receive form, kindly return same to the money transfer officer, who will then process the transfer and pay you accordingly, all things been equal.
Special note:
You may not be able to receive transfers if the name on your ID card does not comply or if in any way contradicts the name as seen on the money transfer platform.
Additionally, you are not getting paid in USD, all payouts are in Nigerian naira (NGN) at this time.
Conclusion
Say your name is Chinedu Seun Ibrahim likewise contained in your ID card, if the money is sent with Chinedu Sen Ibrahim, you are not getting paid.The Seun was spelt wrongly, if say the transfer contains Chindu Seun Ibrahim, you are not getting paid as well, since Chinedu has been misspelt against your ID card.
Your name as contained on the ID card must be same as contained on the money transfer.
It then stands that error of omission, commission and any other one is not accepted.
Ensure you send the correct sequence and name spellings to the sender, avoid temptation for errors.
Have questions and concerns you’d like to have me address on this topic, use the comment box below, I’ll be giving honest response that’ll solve your challenges on money transfer, kind regards.
About The Author
Raphael Orjiis a freelance writer, professional blogger and a content marketing consultant. I work with small businesses, startups and entrepreneurs in building their brand image with high quality blogging and content marketing strategy. I blog over at www.financengr.com.
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