Topup Genie (TuG) is an airtime recharge platform that helps Nigerians QUICKLY and CONVENIENTLY topup their mobile phones, or that of friends, family, staff, church groups, et al.

TuG delivers airtime recharge in 6 seconds or less making it the fastest way to topup in Nigeria.

The TuG team presented at CcHub’s Showcase Tuesday on February 19 to share some of the platform’s new features with the tech community. Users had noted that our service only worked with internet/data plans activated. In response, we introduced TextMe Credit and FlashMe Credit.

Using TextMe Credit is simple: The user sends an SMS with the syntax “Topup Amount AccountID” to 0817 460 4088. An example SMS is “Topup 2000 845CD” where 2000 is the amount of airtime requested, and 845CD is the unique account identifier. Innovative security measures ensure TextMe Credit is safe:

1. It can only be used to top up the phone number where the top up request is originated
2. The account owner must have previously authorised TextMe Credit for this phone number
3. There is a limit to the total amount of airtime that can be obtained via TextMe Credit per phone number however this can be increases/reset by the account owner. In the example above, at least ₦2,000 of that limit should be available for a successful transaction. Note the account owner must also have a balance of at least ₦2000 to execute the transaction.

SMS functionality is phone agnostic and TextMe Credits are charged at the network SMS rates (₦4)

FlashMe Credit is a ‘Joker’ for INSTANT airtime. The user simply flashes the same phone number above to buy airtime. The security features are the same as in Text Top up however the amount of airtime to be topped up, e.g. ₦200, ₦500, must have been predefined by the account owner.

A robust discussion followed with a lot of interest in the specific technologies used to power the features. A teaser about our coming Pay-Like-Magic and Merchant/Affiliate services was shared with developers to get them excited about some of the new things cooking in the Genie Lamp.

The Hub is an exciting place to be as it feels like the epicentre of Nigeria’s nascent tech revolution. The number of skilled web and mobile app developers, designers, and their resultant ventures is sensational and will only increase as more people take advantage of the laid foundations. It is really an avenue for co-creation as we have been beneficiaries of – the re-architecting of the TuG platform post its initial launch where community members helped brainstorm on intelligent ways to make it robust and scalable. This collegial atmosphere and community ethos is one of the Hub’s strength and the advantage any tech start-up working out here has over many others.

This piece was contributed by the Topup Genie team. You can find out more about topping up your line using Topup Genie here