Seamless 3Q/15
Sweden-based Seamless posted third quarter revenue of SEK 75 million, an increase of 75% compared to the same period last year. The Company’s Flagship product, SEQR, is now looking for one or more co-investors.
Unified Payments & MC
Lagos-based Unified Payment Service Limited has been granted an acquiring license that is expected to broadly increase the acceptance of MasterCard payment cards in Nigeria.
MC & eTranzact
Africa’s largest remittance market is about to get bigger with the new partnership between eTranzact International and MasterCard. The deal has the potential to open up new remittance corridors, expand the scope of cashless money transfers, extend financial inclusion and support the growth of the economy in Nigeria.
Diamond Biometrics
Nigeria’s Diamond Bank has become the first African bank to launch a fingerprint recognition feature on its mobile app. The service, an iOS Touch ID, is a major leap for the African bank.
MasterCard & BANSEFI
MasterCard and BANSEFI announced a partnership to foster financial inclusion in Mexico through the disbursement of social benefits using electronic payments. The BANSEFI MASMasterCard-branded card is part of the recently launched social support program developed by the Mexican Government.
MasterCard Announces Latest Branded eID card
MasterCard launched the eID pilot program. In the pilot phase, the Nigerian Identity Management Commission (NIMC) will issue MasterCard-branded identity cards with electronic payments functionality to 13 million Nigerians. This initiative is the largest rollout of a biometric-based verification card with an electronic payment solution in the country and the broadest financial inclusion program in Africa. The eID card forms a key component of the Nigerian Identity Management System, deployed by NIMC as part of its mandate to create, maintain and operate the country’s first central National Identity Database and provide proof of identity to Nigerians 16 years and older. The eID card will provide millions of Nigerians with the security, convenience and reliability of electronic payments. NIMC is working with several government agencies to integrate and harmonize all identity databases including the Driver’s License, Voter Registration, Health Insurance, Tax, SIM and the National Pension Commission (PENCOM) into a single, shared services platform.
HyperWallet Announces Latest Market Expansion
HyperWallet has recently launched low-cost payment services to Nigeria, enabling companies to pay individuals in-country via direct-to-bank money transfers and reloadable prepaid debit cards. With hyperWALLET, corporates can make fully-compliant electronic payments to Nigerian bank accounts in NGN currency, typically within 1-2 business days. Additionally, corporates can pay Nigerians instantly using reloadable prepaid debit cards in USD, EUR or GBP currencies. With the addition of payments to Nigeria, hyperWALLET continues to expand their global financial network and support the diverse payment needs of corporate customers and their payees worldwide. The global payment platform lets users send mass manage their funds with their e-wallets, bank deposit, prepaid cards, cash pickup and via mobile phone.
IKaaz Cloud Based Payments
Following a successful entry into the Nigerian market with contactless mobile payments, Bangalore based iKaaz is now ready to offer its popular NFC and bluetooth powered cloud based payments platform to consumers in Kenya. Announcing a strategic alliance with Family Bank, one of Kenya’s leading banks, iKaaz along with its local partner EDGE financial systems will bring the revolutionary Tap & Pay solution to Family Bank’s customers. Family Bank customers can now expect to move faster through checkout at retail stores as well as be able to use the same payment tags to pay at transportation check points.
Unity Bank PCI DSS Certified, 1Q PBT up 26%
Unity Bank plc has recorded a 1Q/14 26% profit before tax from the year ago period, corresponding with its mandatory annual re-certification of its PCIDSS. The bank also received its Report on Compliance (RoC) from the external Qualified Security Assessor (QSA), NetHost Legislation Ltd. This is in line with the directive from the Central Bank of Nigeria that all banks must achieve certification to the PCI standards, Unity Bank had successfully attained its certification on April 5, ahead of almost three-quarter of the banks in the country and is among the first to complete its annual recertification. The bank has also disclosed that to ensure that it continues to maintain its high security standards for the protection of card-holder data and card production environments, it is putting resources in place to train its own team of Internal Security Assessors (ISAs) to lead future recertification exercises and work with external Qualified Security Assessors (QSAs) to obtain RoC.
MasterCard Reports 40% GDV Growth in APMEA
MasterCard reported a growth of 40% in gross dollar volume, or GDV, for its prepaid card business across Asia/Pacific, Middle East & Africa (APMEA) for 2013 (y-o-y). The momentum for prepaid growth is expected to continue given the potential for driving further financial inclusion in emerging markets as well as the increasing cross border and e-commerce transactions.
Teasey Mobile Selects Verifone
VeriFone Mobile Money is pleased to announce that it has been selected by Teasy Mobile (“Teasy”) in Nigeria to widen mobile money services and make them more relevant to local needs. VeriFone Mobile Money will deploy its retail enablement solution integrating the mobile wallet, banking, and telecommunication provider networks with the point-of-sale (“POS”). Teasy will work closely with local industry players to roll out VeriFone contactless POS devices as part of the solution.
IKaaz launches NFC Payments
IKaaz has embarked on the African market with the launch of its innovative tap and pay offering. Consumers can now make NFC payments thanks to iKaaz’s NFC powered mobile payments platform running on the cloud. iKaaz provides a comprehensive suite of end-to-end mobile payments solutions that include a feature rich mobile wallet, an innovative – yet cost effective mPOS (mobile Point of Sale) and a robust payments platform that allows banks, operators and financial institutions to extend mobile payments to their customers in a fast, secure and cost effective manner. Consumers use NFC tags that are linked to the mobile wallet similar to a debit card that is linked to bank accounts; while merchants on the other hand, will use iKaaz NFC mPOS to complete transactions all of which are processed by iKaaz’s robust payments platform.