By Adeniyi Ogunfowoke
As e-commerce on the continent continues to grow in leaps and bounds, payments, side by side with logistics, is something that sellers all over from Cairo to Lagos continue to work hard to figure out. With many economies struggling amidst unfavorable government policies, businesses on the continent are always on the lookout for trusted means to secure transactions coming in and out of their business.
Excellent payment solutions are important because they expand the frontiers of businesses allowing them to serve more customers far and wide. It also improves the customer’s user experience when payment is seamless and without hassles, and is able to go through the challenges of conversion rates, stamp duties, and processing fees, and several other barriers of trade and payment long experienced by buyers and sellers alike in Africa.
#1 Egypt – Vapulus
The Egyptian payment gateway Vapulus is now one of the top 15 payment gateways worldwide, according to Finance Online’s latest ranking, that reviewed the best 74 payment gateway solutions worldwide including Amazon Pay and Paypal, becoming the 1st Egyptian FinTech solution to achieve this prominent rank.
#2 Ethiopia – YenePay
YenePay offers an online payment option for individuals and businesses in Ethiopia by partnering with local financial institutions. Solutions offered by YenePay for individuals and businesses include pay in shops, peer-to-peer wallet transfer, online payments and tracking and invoicing of payments. Founded in 2015, it is one of the more popular payment infrastructures in Ethiopia.
#3 Morocco – PayLogic
Paylogic offers a technology EFT(electronic funds transfer) platform for PoS, Gateways, Acquirers, card processors, etc. It also offers instant card issuing services (both branded and private level). Also offers a mobile phone network for customers, merchants and banks across Africa. The company is active in Morocco, Sudan, Gabon, Senegal, Congo, Bénin, Mali, with a strong network of partners and representatives
#4 Nigeria – SeerBit
SeerBit provides payment solutions in 11 countries on the continent and is determined to double that at the end of the year. Adding to its roster of Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Senegal, Cameroon, Burkina Faso, Tanzania, Uganda, Ivory Coast, Benin Republic and Mali. With multiple payment methods created for merchants and individuals, SeerBit is an inclusive and innovative payment gateway that aims to be the household name for payments in Africa. Educational consultants, restaurants, mech-tech services, health, and pharmaceutical delivery companies are some of the types of companies to put their trust in SeerBit’s payment technology for their online payment solutions.
#5 South Africa – PayU
PayU is one of the largest payment providers worldwide and offers a variety of options for business and the largest number of payment methods of any gateway in South Africa. PayU prides itself as a payment solutions company that provides viable payment solutions across the globe in countries where traditional institutions can’t.
What’s the future of Payment in Africa?
With 350 million unbanked in Sub-Saharan Africa the task for fintech companies remains to capture as many more of the population into its system whether through e-wallets or USSD payment systems. The solutions and architecture that traditional banking institutes provide are too mammoth-sized for the new fintech companies to render them redundant overnight, but they can serve as a buffer to bank the unbanked in Africa. As one generation passes away, and another with more proclivity for technology and the amazing things that you can do with it, fintechs must be ready, capacity wise to capture a market that is ripe and ready for the taking.
Traditional banking institutions won’t sit on their oars. But technology is to be bought and sold, and where they can’t compete we expect to see an acquisition of modern fintechs by traditional banking institutions. Whatever happens, the real winners are the millions whom new opportunities are going to be provided for. All 350 million and more of them.
