BUSARI ABIOLA www.funabite.com

INTRODUCTION

Times have been tough for thousands of Nigerians who have either lost their jobs in the

past decade or waiting endlessly for a job that may never come. Poverty at grass roots

level is a sorry story as majority of the population has no means of sustainable livehood.

There is rural exodus of youths. It is necessary to educate Nigerians that paid

employments is no longer a REALITY in this country and that the only way out is SELF

EMPLOYMENT (start a small business of your own). By so doing you take control of

your worries, manage your destiny and provide security for your future.

Knowledge is only potential power says an adage and paves the road of RICHES when

you know which road to take information brings transformation. If you are not informed

you cannot be transformed. Enough information brings you to your destinations. This

equally confirmed in the scripture (Hosea 4: 6).

Why we have large scale of unemployment in this country is because the country’s

unemployed is made up of young people who lack PRODUCTIVE & MARKETABLE

SKILLS.

For investment to take place there must be investment opportunity, which could be a

project. The purpose therefore for introducing any proposed project to the investing

populace is to create the necessary & general awareness of such projects in terms of

technical feasibility, economic viability, market potentials etc.

The purpose of this paper is to educate, expose and give you the step-by-step guide on

how to start GSM Recharge Card vouchers production. You will be told all you need to

know projects cost, raw materials, training and equipment.

MAIN BUSINESS OF GSM VOUCHER PRINTING

Trade in the GSM voucher business is not really a new concept. The market is almost as

old as the GSM Industry in Nigeria itself. This Industry which first started in 2001 with

Econet now Zain as the operator, saw others like MTN, MTEL, GLO, Visafone etc

joining and with a potential so even grow much more. Nigerian economy is in investors

are showing interest in our local content and some are already onboard. No doubt the

telecommunication business and its subordinate elements such as sale of recharge cards

and voucher will continue to grow and demand for cards and vouchers will increase with

more money coming into circulation.

You can begin the recharge vouchers print business by starting on a large scale, medium

scale, or small. A major determinant is how much you are bringing in as your capital

outlay. This market is still growing and will grow to become part of existence. The

reason is because Mobile communication business and its subordinate element such as

sale of recharge card and vouchers have come to stay with the capacity to generate in

millions of Nigerians who will avail themselves of the opportunity of offers.

A recent market survey showed that besides sachet water pure water) recharge cards and

vouchers are the fastest selling products in the country accounting for over 5 million

customers’ patronage per day. What a goldmine!

Imagine how profitable it will b e for someone to embrace a business like this

Telecommunication Company’s now declare profits and turnovers running into Billions

of Naira. How amazing? The interesting thing is that we all can have our share of this

booty through printing marketing of Recharge Vouchers.

I am not going to bamboozle you with unrealistic intrigues about promise of making

millions overnight. This is very possible but you must be ready to sow to reap. Little

profits re- invested into this business over a period of time can sure get you there.

My interest is to show you how to make as much as N30,000 as startup medium on a

small scale basis, N50,000 minimum capital and N15,000 - N35,000 for small scale

dealers. You ask how that is possible well read on and see for yourself.

One more thing that you need know for such is that no matter where you are and no

matter how many your market competitors are, you still will grab your fair share of the

market having put in place good marketing strategies to push your products.

Please note that the right to print recharge cards is vested only on the telecommunication

operators in the country such as MTN, GLOBACOM, MTEL, CELTEL, VISAFONE

etc. you alternatively be licensed by these operators to print recharge vouchers having

fulfilled all necessary conditions.

Recharge cards are in hard forms with computerized security sealed silver panel

containing the numbers for recharging while recharge vouchers are printed on soft papers

with or without the name of the licensed dealers on them and with no special feature.

WHAT EQUIPMENT DO I NEED TO START THIS BUSINESS?

1. You need to register with a dealer: this is absolutely free. What it entails is for to

be know to the dealer either by name or by other means of identification. They

will have email address and you will have installed their software on your

computer. Payments for PINS (vouchers are sold as PINS to the sub-dealers who

need to print them) will be made to the company’s account number and

accompanied by a text message stating how you want the PINS to be sent to you.

Example: send me MTN 100(100 PINS), I have paid to your account VCI nigltd,

titi@yahoo.com. Note that its important you call the dealers to confirm if they

have on ground what you intend to buy before going ahead to make payment into

their account.

2. You need a company with or without internet connection.

3. You will need a printer, which can be either colored or black and white. you can

go for any laser jet printer, laser jet print don’t wash off as easily as Desk jet

prints do.

4. A flash drive (USB) is also required. This especially needed if you are not having

personal internet connection. In other words, you need to go to cyber-café to copy

the encrypted PINS to your e-mail box by your principal dealer.

5. You will need pre-printed papers: an example of this paper is the one shown to

you at the training. Dealers will give you samples upon request. You can then

give it any printer to make copies for you. Plain papers can also be used in place

of pre-p. The most important things is to have clear prints.

Bulk order is very important in this business the minimum order placement you can make

is 100 units of any voucher denomination you want. Dealers sell PINS in 100s. You can’t

pay and request to be sent MTN 100(99PINS) bit-by-bit orders are not allowed but you

can sell in it’s to your customers.

Internet connection is required as OINS ordered for will only be sent through the internet.

That is by email. If you have proposal internet connection that is cool! If you do not, it

still ok just that you will have to be visiting cyber-cafes occasionally to copy your PINS.

An important point to note here is that you must avoid downloading your PINS unto the

computer at the café. Download into your flash disk and transfer to your business

computer. This is to guide theft by anyone. Also ensure that your email password is very

secure. If you don’t have an email address, ask a family relative that you can trust or

friend to show you how to create one today.

Recharge vouchers transactions are mainly routed through emails except in the case of a

principal dealer that provides you other equipment such as orange box. Therefore you

need to open a valid e-mail for your business if you are not before. Recharge vouchers to

be sold to you as a dealer, is sent in an encrypted form called PINS. They are usually

encoded by your principal dealer for security purpose. You will be given a password to

decode it after downloading.

You must possible register online with your principal dealer in order to facilitate easy and

reliable trading with him’. This would enable them create a record on their data-base for

your business transactions.

You must download the software provided by your main dealer on your computer. Do not

forget that you will be printing your recharge vouchers from this software after you might

uploaded your stock directly into it. Like I said before, some dealers give the software for

free while a few others charge certain fees. The choice of dealer will be absolutely yours

to make however. Remember to always call your principal dealer earlier before you place

you order. Here are the names and addresses of some of the principal dealers and their

price list.

1. RINGO TELECOMS

Ringo’s Office is situated at tantalizer building building, 117 Allen Avenue, Ikeja,

Lagos.

Tel: 08032030771, 08060079090, 08054505959.

Www: ringotelecoms.com.

RINGO TELECOMS PRICE LISTS

MTN 100 94

ZAIN 50 46

ZAIN 100 93

ZAIN 200 186

ZAIN 500 466

GLO 100 93

GLO 150 138

For Ringo, the software and installation price is N15, 000

2. PREPAID NIGERIA

Prepaid Nigeria is at 2nd floor, bamboo Plaza Annex, 6-8, New Isheri road, Omole,

Ikeja, Lagos. Tel: 01-7914279 or 08032036770. www.prepaidnigeria.Com or www.

ngrgsm.com

PREPAID NIGERIA PRICE LIST

MTN 100 95

MTN 200 190

ZAIN 100 95

ZAIN 200 190

ZAIN 500 470

GLO 100 94

GLO 150 139

Prepaid Nigeria offers their software free of charge. It can download at their website.

3. VOUCHER COLONY

The operations of voucher colony defers from those of Ringo and prepaid Nigeria.

They can be contacted through www.vouchercolony.com

01-7942888, 080332880147, 08024232891, 08034235993,

email:payment@vouchercolony.com, This is how they work.

You will be a reseller. That means you will be using voucher colony’s network to

print vouchers from their POS terminals. Resellers may own or have access to cyber

cafes, business centers, banks or other location where a lot of human traffic exists.

Resellers basically sell vouchers to be the consumer that load the value on their

phone.

The steps are:

* You install the voucher colony software (download software from site).

* Add funds to your voucher colony account.

* Login to their website and download voucher of choice.

* print and sell downloaded vouchers via the POS terminal.

To start, you will need the following:

* A computer

* Regular access to cyber cafe to have internet connection

* Pay for voucher colony reseller account (minimum is N20, 000)

* You will need to purchase their POS terminal (P200 cost N21, 500)

* Software and web access (N5000).

Please visit website for details on how to make payment and became a sub-dealer.

Please note that the practice discussed below apply to printing using computer and a

printer and not for POS terminals.

THE PRACTICE OF GSM VOUCHER PRINTING

Before trading, your computer and printer must be in good condition remove any

virus from computer by installing up-do-da antivirus; defragment your hard drive to

increase speed. You need business capital. You must have an email account.

These tips would help: get your computer system and printer read Log on to the

internet to open a yahoo mail if you are not having one before. Decide who suits you

as your principal dealers. Log on to principal dealer’s website and complete a

registration form. You need to provide and ID and password to easily access your

market place on your personal computer.

Having done that; go back to your email and open your inbox for a confirmation

message sent to you by your main dealer. This would serve as evidence that your

particulars have been saved on the company’s data-base .Your business transactions

can easily be tracked online.

You may also visit your principal dealer at their office to get registered and start buying their PINS. This registration is free except where you may be requested to pay for their software. Access your principal dealer’s website again so as to download the trading software on your system. After downloading.

Install directly on your desktop the software. This would be used from time-to-time to

print and manger your bulk PINS.

Call your principal dealer’s agent to place your stock after payment to the company’s

account. You must break-down your order for him and send this through text

message. E.g. “send top me 200 units of MTN, 500 units GLO N150 and 200 units

ZAIN N100 I have paid into your account.”

Copy these PINS from your mails and download directly into the software on your

desktop. You will print and manage your encrypted PINS from this software after.

Already, you are on your way to making good profits from the venture. Connect your

printer to your personal computer and print in batches, you may inscribe your name

on the voucher if you wish. What you need to do is to click on “setup options” and

manage your vouchers the way you like.

WHO ARE MY CUSTOMERS?

Your customers are those people in your locality that engage in interpersonal communication through GSM and those carrying on GSM related business. In this

category are the GSM call centers, the road-side recharge card vendors and Ind ividual. You can decide to sell to any of these customers who retailers are leaving certain reasonable profit margin for them as well while you discharge your products as fast as possible to replenish you stock on time. Conversely, you may be also sell directly to final consumers so as to double your gains- you be making both profits of a sub-dealer and a retailer. The only disadvantage of limiting yourself to sell directly to the final consumers is that your stock may fast even through the profit

HOW DO I SELL MY PRODUCTS?

I may bother you as an entrepreneur how to sell your products and make good profits. Do

not have the fear that you are new in the business and my be denied good patronage. All

you need do is to make a through market survey of your area. Make a list of the sub

dealers that sell at cheapest rate to the GSM call centers around you. Then, try to

reasonable cut your price and wait for the result. You will discover that people tend to

walk a few kilometers from their vicinity to patronize a dealer in another locality simply

because of a reduction in price which is not even more than 50 kobo. For example, if the

cheapest MTN N100 in your area goes for N96, you may sell for N95.50 and beats the

other dealers (your competitors). Always remember however that no matter the number

of your competitor you still will have your fair share of the market. This is a principle t

hat is driven by creativity and good market strategy. You customers will come to you.

In addition to this you may accept t he family sales technique. This involves every

member of the same household having some vouchers with them at any certain time and

is ready to make sales at the slightest possible chance to do so. This method has been

tested and the results very positive. Selling at both wholesale and retail price can bring in

extra earnings and increase profit margin. A third method is the let others do the sales

method. In this method you involve people who may not be ordinarily interested in this

business by offering vouchers to them on credits and with profits. For instance Mrs. A

may not be into the sale of voucher, may be a cyber café owner or business center agent.

You approach Mrs. A and offer her some cards say 10 of each units of MTN 100, Celtel

100 and Glo 100 at the rate of say N98. She makes N2 on each while you make N5 and

sell faster. It is the cumulative effect of this that will count.

You can sit down and study your environment property; you will discover other

techniques t hat will work for you. Always bear in mind that no matter the number of

your competitors, you still will have your fair share of the market.

Your principal dealer is also in the best position to sell to you recharge cards at reduced

costs. Running this together with voucher printing will no doubt increase your

profitability level. Best of luck and God bless.

BUSARI ABIOLA