Nigerian escrow company, EscrowLock recently won a $100 million global business grant for Small Businesses from leading social media company, Facebook incorporated. The Anambra based tech firm thus appears set to take on bigger challenges as it expands its scope and offerings.
According to the company, the grant is being utilized to strengthen the EscrowLock system in order to more efficiently support individuals and small businesses that sell products and services across platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and other online and offline channels.
EscrowLock essentially works as a trusted third-party that receives and ”locks” transaction payments from buyers and releases same to the seller when goods or services have been successfully delivered in the agreed condition.
According to Director of EscrowLock, Elochukwu Eze, he says escrowlock Marketplace currently engages over 1,000 Nigerians as affiliates.
How It Works
The buyer and seller negotiate and reach an agreement concerning the product or service to be transacted. This includes, among others, the features and condition, as well as the price and mode of delivery (if applicable). Then one party, usually the buyer, starts the transaction on EscrowLock.
Buyer makes a commitment by depositing the payment for such goods/services to a dedicated bank account provided by EscrowLock, where the payment is safely locked until seller fulfills his part of the bargain. Note: For safety reasons and to meet monitoring and regulatory requirements, EscrowLock can only make use of special bank accounts that are in its corporate name and are strictly domiciled in a commercial bank regulated by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and insured by the Nigerian Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC), or similar foriegn body.
Upon receipt of payment from buyer, EscrowLock informs seller to proceed with delivering the goods/services being transacted to the buyer.
In the absence of dispute from the buyer within a specific time frame, EscrowLock “unlocks” the payment and releases it to the seller, and everyone is happy.
