PayStack partners Truecaller to cutoff verification hassles in e-payments, others
African leading electronic payment service provider, Paystack, has partnered Truecaller to deepen subscriber base by leveraging on SDK, its mobile identity product.
Otherwise, Paystack is one of Nigeria’s largest payments startups, processing nearly 20 per cent of all online transactions in Africa’s largest economy. The company (the first Nigerian startup to get into the celebrated Y Combinator Accelerator) aims to allow merchants in Africa accept payments from anyone, anywhere in the world.
Beyond epayment access, the platform will also serve as a business tool for startups across Africa in verifying the authenticity of the mobile identity of their customers, and in turn, further help in creating more trust in the online payments landscape on the continent.
Explaining more on the collaboration, the Chief Executive Officer of Paystack, Shola Akinlade, said: “This partnership with Truecaller allows Paystack to deliver on our promise of trust as well as a frictionless experience. We want to be able to guarantee that all businesses paid via Paystack are thoroughly checked for legitimacy and credibility. In a low-trust environment like Nigeria where many people are paying online for the first time, it’s important to deliver a safe, fraud-free experience, and this is a responsibility that Paystack takes extremely seriously.”
“We needed to balance the strong desire to open Paystack up to unregistered business against the equally strong obligation to protect the interests of customers. Customers need the firm assurance that every Paystack merchant they pay is a vetted business, and our partnership with Truecaller ensures that we can continue to be worthy of customers’ trust.”
Currently, Paystack makes three verification options available to developers – the ability to verify the Bank Verification Number (BVN) of customers (BVN is an identifying number issued by Nigerian regulators), the ability to verify bank account details, and the ability to verify card details. Truecaller will be a fourth, new verification option, and the impact of this will be to create more trust in the payments flow for African businesses, the company said.
In his remarks, Truecaller Head of Global Developer & Startup Relations, Priyam Bose, underscored the importance of this groundbreaking partnership: “Paystack is enabling the growth of a vibrant online payment ecosystem and the digitization of businesses for Nigerian economy. Truecaller is excited to play a strong role in this vision by enabling tools that increase trust and enable frictionless payments across Africa, powered by Paystack.”
