Saturday, November 23African Digital Business Magazine

Tag: Digital payments

Fintech, South Africa News

Municipal Payments Essential for South Africa’s Future Cities

The urban population in Africa has swelled from 15% of the total population in 1960, to over 40% in 2010 and is set to exceed 60% by 2050[ii]. It is anticipated that South Africa will follow suit. In fact, current projections indicate that an additional 19 to 24 million people will be added to the national population over the next three decades, and that the vast majority of this growth will be confined to cities and towns[iii]. But what is needed by the country’s municipalities to cope with and cater for this growth? “Municipal payments play a vital role in creating cities of the future,” says Nomvula Nyandeni, Business Development Lead at Pay@, one of Southern Africa’s leading payment solutions providers. “Municipal revenue collected from customers is integral to sustain cities f...
Energy, Fintech, South Africa News

Tech tipping point

New technology often seems fantastic on paper yet has little impact in the life of the average person. A new tipping solution for fuel pump attendants, however, does both. When asked to fill up a fuel tank as motorists do in the movies, few South Africans would know what to do beyond pulling their tank lever from inside the car. Fuel station attendants are as much a part of our culture as braais and ‘howzit’. And yet, a BusinessTech poll of over 7000 respondents in 2018 showed that 37% of motorists don’t tip pump attendants. Engen aims to change this with its new ‘Tip an Attendant’ function. Ukheshe technologies, Telkom and Engen have collaborated to create the QR solution which allows motorists to tip attendants and cashiers for efficient service by simply scanning a QR code using thei...
Fintech, Mauritius News, Startups

Peach Payments expands into Mauritius, serves as key event sponsor at Africa FinTech Festival

Peach Payments is pleased to announce that it has set up an office in Mauritius recently in pursuit of its pan-African expansion strategy. As a FinTech start-up that was set up in South Africa in 2012 and expanded into Kenya in 2018, the company is set to make a significant contribution to the pan-African FinTech landscape as a key event sponsor at the Africa FinTech Festival (AFF) which is being held in a virtual format by the Mauritius Africa FinTech Hub (MAFH) from 13 to 15 October 2021. Peach Payments is a world-class payment gateway offering simple, seamless and secure online payment services which enable businesses to easily accept payments on their websites and mobile apps, integrating with leading e-commerce platforms like WooCommerce, Shopify, Wix and Magento. As the organ...
Fintech, Kenya News, Mozambique News, Nigeria News, South Africa News

Banks across Africa Turn to IBM Hybrid Cloud and AI Solutions to Accelerate Digital Innovation

Africa’s leading banks including EcoBank, Nedbank, Attijariwafa Bank, United Bank of Africa, Co-operative Bank of Kenya and Banco Mais are tapping into IBM technologies to help advance financial inclusion across the continent IBM today announced that major financial institutions across Africa have selected hybrid cloud and AI capabilities from IBM to unlock digital innovation and continue their work to develop digital-first solutions, ultimately broadening access to financial services on the continent. COVID-19 continues to accelerate the already rapid changes that were happening across the financial services sector in Africa, fast-tracking the adoption of digital technologies to boost financial inclusion. With over 475 million Africans expected to be mobile internet users by 2025 GSMA –...
Fintech, South Africa News, Startups

Fintech Startup SOL announces rebrand with exciting new virtual card offering

SOL unveils virtual card and new brand as it redefines the customer experience SOLmate, an online payment platform that offers clients a digital wallet facility, has unveiled an exciting new product offering together with an extensive rebrand and renewed corporate vision. Following a name change to SOLmate, the fintech has launched a new, innovative virtual card – placing unbanked and underbanked clients at the centre of SOLmate’s business offering. The new virtual card provides clients with the ability to shop online safely, and to draw cash from various retail stores – making SOLmate one of the first fintech players to offer a virtual card to FICA lite customers who would otherwise not have had access to digital financial services. With a new tagline of “Your money. Your life. Your ...
South Africa News

The Protection of Personal Information Act: How will it impact SA’s payments landscape?

The Protection of Personal Information Act, 2013 (POPIA) came into full effect from 1 July 2021. The Act is the comprehensive data protection legislation that obliges organisations to lawfully process the personal information of data subjects (both natural and juristic persons) by applying specific principles and conditions. But how will it affect the payments space specifically? “As businesses in the payments industry process copious amounts of personal information, they now have to change many elements of the way they operate in order to accommodate the Act,” says Cecil Munsamy, Managing Director of AVeS Cyber Security and a consultant to Pay@ - a leading payment aggregator and provider of secure payment solutions. “These businesses now need to have extensive compliance programmes in p...
Fintech, South Africa News

Cash is king – but digital payments are coming for the throne

Even with a high banked population and a multitude of electronic payment options available, the average South African still use cash for daily purchases and payments with an estimated 78-80% of transactions being in cash. Anton van der Merwe, the recently-appointed COO of Ukheshe Technologies, a fintech enablement partner that works with financial institutions to grow in the rapidly-expanding digital space, says that for these reasons alone, the opportunities for digital payments are set to boom. Van der Merwe, who has a strong background in traditional financial environments says that his appointment at Ukheshe represents the significant shift in the traditional and fintech spaces: “New technologies are expected to change the local landscape as emerging trends accelerate and traditional...
Fintech, South Africa News

Avoiding Instant Electronic Funds Transfer payments Risks

In 2020, e-commerce in South Africa spiked by 66%, driven by COVID-19-induced lockdowns and a drop in brick-and-mortar retail sales[i]. This increase was accompanied by an upsurge in the use of instant Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) payments. Towards the end of last year however, the SA Reserve Bank, Payment Association of South Africa (PASA), and Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) issued a joint statement warning consumers to be aware of the risks associated with this payment method, particularly the use of screen scraping, "which makes it possible for third parties to access bank account data and automate actions on behalf of a consumer using that consumer’s online banking access credentials". The statement went on to detail some of these risks such as the potential for fraud and...
89% of GCC consumers will opt for digital banking services over visiting a physical branch post Covid-19
Fintech

89% of GCC consumers will opt for digital banking services over visiting a physical branch post Covid-19

77% of respondents in the GCC access digital banking services at least once a week 44% are willing to switch to a different bank due to poor customer relations 31% perceive their bank’s current offering of access to online banking services as weak Consumer appetite for digital banking services continues to grow in the countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), accelerated further by the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a new survey conducted by Backbase with YouGov. Eighty-nine percent of respondents to the survey said that they are now more likely to opt for digital banking services rather than make a physical visit to a bank branch, with consumers saying they prefer digital self-service banking solutions delivered with the same convenience as their ecommerce, entertainment, and...
Fintech, South Africa News

South Africa’s Leading Payment Aggregator and Secure Payment Solutions Provider Expands into Africa

With the African Continental Free Trade Agreement set to generate combined consumer and business spending of $6.7 trillion by 2030[i],  the continent requires payment platforms to cater for this growth. To this end, Pay@ - a leading South African payment aggregator and provider of secure payment solutions - will be expanding into several African countries and providing consumers and businesses alike with a variety of payment methods. The company’s CEO, Andrew Hardie says that Pay@ has deployed operations into Namibia, Botswana and Lesotho over the past few years but will now be adding Zambia, Mozambique and Angola to this list, with additional African countries in the pipeline. “We would like to build on the strength of our business in South Africa and grow out our offerings across the con...