EDITOR’S QUESTION
ERAN FEINSTEIN
CEO, Direct Pay Online Group
Digital payments are becoming
increasingly popular in Africa and are
impacting African enterprises positively;
they are revolutionising how payments
are made in general and offering safer
and more secure options. In addition,
digital payments are opening new
spending opportunities for Africans
across the continent. The great
potential in digital payments has seen
the rise and growth of online payment
gateways and payment facilitators
across the continent. and secure payment option for them
and their customers.
At Direct Pay Online we provide
merchants on our platform and their
customers the freedom to pay and be
paid from anywhere, anytime. This is
done through a real-time cloud based
processing platform which supports
multiple transactions with both online
and offline capabilities. In an industry that has been hit by
fraudsters before, it will be important
to invest in the services of a payment
facilitator with a high level of security,
such as Direct Pay Online, where we
have the highest level of PCI DSS
certification. This will help safeguard
them from possible chargebacks as a
result of fraud activities.
Our platform supports all modes of
digital payment, including all cards
and mobile money and assures
merchants on the platform a fast, easy
o c . i c t n e g i l e t n i .
Businesses ought to have the
infrastructure required in place in
preparation for a cashless economy.
These would for example, include
the purchase of mobile phones and
computers among other devices that
are used to facilitate digital payments.
In most cases connection to an Internet
service provider will be necessary in
preparation for adoption.
The recent mobile revolution has spread
phone access far and wide across Africa
and the continent has surpassed not
only the number of mobile phones
in use in Europe, but the number of
mobile phones in the US as well. This
widespread access to mobile technology
is resulting in a huge upswing in mobile
payments. For example, it’s estimated
now that 61% of Kenyans use mobile
phones to send money.
It is worth noting that a cashless
economy is not limited to physical
credit cards anymore, virtual wallets
have in the recent past opened the
possibility of online shopping even for
those without a bank account.
Lack of infrastructure appears to
be the greatest obstacle to the
realisation of a cashless economy
in Africa, especially when looking at
the Internet penetration rates in the
continent, one of the factors digital
payments are reliant upon. The cost of
using digital payments versus making
cash payments is also an obstacle
considering the poverty levels in
the continent.
INTELLIGENTCIO
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