The mobile application for Africa’s first digital lay-by and recurring payments provider, LayUp, has won ‘Best Incubated Solution’ at the 11th annual MTN Business App of the Year Awards, which honours the work of the best of the best coders, tech enthusiasts, students, start-ups and lesser-known app developers in South Africa. The application was developed by the Capital Appreciation Group’s development team, for LayUp.
LayUp is Africa’s first fully digital lay-by and recurring payments business, certified through the Payments Association South Africa (PASA). LayUp’s omnichannel digitised payment plan solution enables retailers with smart technology that increases sales and grows their market whilst simultaneously providing improved access for consumers.
“We’re delighted to see our development team and the LayUp team being recognised for the work they’ve done in democratising access to credit for millions of South Africans, with an excellent digital solution,” says Pinki Hoohlo, Executive: Strategy Payments Division at African Resonance and Dashpay. “The win is recognition of the ability of our internal team to produce world-leading applications that help solve important problems”.
The MTN Business App of the Year Awards attracted just over 1 000 entries, with many of the entered apps focused on solving societal and business problems, according to MTN.
“This win is a big step in the right direction for us and we hope to see our in-store app being adopted in the market as we move out of our incubation phase,” says LayUp Technologies Founder, Andrew Katzwinkel. “Our team would like to thank our hard-working development partners from African Resonance and DashPay – part of the Capital Appreciation Group – for helping us bring our vision to life in a way that is going to make a genuine difference in the lives of millions of consumers”.
Katzwinkel says that one of LayUp’s key distinguishing features is that is not a credit-driven solution and therefore does not discriminate in terms of purchasers or purchases. “This creates consumer sovereignty and opens the market to over 20 million underbanked people, helping create financial inclusion for all,” he says. “LayUp simplifies an essential payment method for millions of people, slashing the time required to set up a lay-by agreement and streamlines the management of payments. The simplicity of the system allows merchants to improve conversion rates, increase basket sizes, build loyalty from return customers, reduce administration cost & effort and access reconciliation & reporting tools online”.