Ecobank, Visa mull facilitating digital payments in Nigeria, 32 others
Leading e-payment group in the world, Visa, is partnering with Ecobank to roll out mVisa to ease payment transactions in about 33 African economies before the end of 2016.
Details gathered by Business Hilights show that the service is coming first in leading market including Nigeria Ghana, Kenya and Tanzania before others.
The key target of the deal is to drive the adoption of mVisa as a choice payment model across Sub-Saharan Africa.
The bank said “With mVisa consumers can pay for goods and services for everyday expenses from bill payments to groceries and taxi services, by simply scanning a QR code on a smart phone or entering a merchant identification number into their feature phones”.
It also added that mVisa addresses the need for a convenient, low cost acceptance payments service throughout the continent. The informal sector contributes about 55 per cent of Sub-Saharan Africa’s GDP which is largely cash based. With mVisa, merchants are now able to receive electronic payments in a cost-effective way, without the need for point-of-sale terminals.
According to the technology, people can receive payments directly into their bank accounts, within minutes of the consumer making a payment and provides real-time notification to both parties. Unlike other mobile payment services mVisa can also handle refunds and charge backs, so if a merchant needs to refund a consumer, mVisa can facilitate this.
Visa is already well on its way to establish a track record in emerging markets. In India eight banks are issuing mVisa, 10 million consumers have downloaded mVisa via their banking app and 50 000 merchants ranging from taxis to restaurants and bill payments are enabled to accept mVisa transactions. And in Africa, mVisa was recently launched in Kenya with three issuing banks and more than 1500 merchants
