Hello, Goodmorning Nairaland,

I met this programmer through his advertisement on Nairaland. I got to his personal website and took his WhatsApp contact from there.

We had a long conversation for a better part of the day yesterday and after making him understand clearly exactly what I wanted to achieve, it was time to talk about the pricing.

He agreed 100k for the entire project, to be developed within a span of 31days. He went on to send me his development timeline in which payment is to be made in two installments, 60% upfront and remaining 40% on project completion and handover.

I told him I can't pay 60% upfront to a stranger. I suggested that we breakdown the milestones further to 20, 40, 40 = 100. He refused saying he likes to work with two payments only and therefore cannot accept the project.

Do you guys know about any payment intermediary that I can make use of for payment to guarantee delivery?

Do your work very well. Search his name and account number on Nairaland if not listed on the list of scammers. Ask for his social media handles and confirm he's the one. Through that you should be convinced to some extent. Then make sure you transfer the money through your bank or mobile app so that there will be evidence of transaction between the two of you.