The payments segment in the Nation has been characterized by the continuous influx of innovative solutions driven by technology. Needless to say that the digital payment sector, with its attendant innovation, has helped accelerate the Nigerian digital payment ecosystem.
The importance of technology and the need for innovation, cannot be overflogged. Particularly, in the last two decades Interswitch, Africa’s integrated payment and digital commerce company, has provided protection against fraud, an effective fraud prevention solution known as Interswitch Security as a Solution was introduced to the partners.
Today, Interswitch is a leading player with critical mass across Africa’s developing financial ecosystem and is active across the payments value chain, providing a full suite of omni-channel payment solutions. According to reports, Interswitch’s vision is that of a prosperous Africa, driven by a seamless exchange of value and commerce and its mission is to create technology solutions that connect and empower individuals, businesses, and communities. Interswitch’s broad network and robust payments platform have been instrumental to the development of the Nigerian payments ecosystem and provide Interswitch with the infrastructure to expand across Africa.
It introduced technology-driven payment solutions that drastically changed how Nigerians paid for goods and services, and how they interacted with cash. Interswitch boasts itself as a platform that creates and sustains a payment ecosystem that helps commerce evolve, businesses grow and individuals thrive.
The technology company, with a combination of witty technology experts, introduced cutting-edge solutions to enhance payment. With this, it has continued to build other solutions that are improving business development and ensuring secure and seamless payment transactions to financial institutions, Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs), merchants and their customers across the African continent.
In Nairobi, Interswitch Group formally unveiled the 2022 Payments Innovation Jury Report, which was also supported by The World Bank and Global Processing Services (GPS) The report titled: “Payment Innovation: Myths and Realities”, comes as part of the series of the which reveals some surprising insights from senior decision makers across the industry, and the 2022 report, which coincides with Interswitch’s 20th anniversary commemoration explores several key areas where payment innovation is currently focused, including A2A payments and BNPL, what actually drives innovation, and which areas of innovation are most overhyped, amongst other incisive global payment themes.
The leading financial technology and integrated payments solution provider has just announced receipt of a Payments Service Holding Company (PSHC) License issued by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
By virtue of this development, which was formally communicated on Friday, January 13, 2023 by the apex bank, Interswitch essentially becomes one of the inaugural licensees by the CBN in this category. According to the regulator, the PSHC regulation requires companies with existing or prospective operations across multiple license categories to set up a payments service holding company (PSHC). The activities of each of the PSHC subsidiaries operating within those respective licensing regimes are clearly delineated, for clearer accountability, effective risk management and the enablement of better regulatory oversight by the CBN.
This recent development interestingly coincides with Interswitch’s 20th anniversary commemoration, which has seen the company cement its position as a pioneering and integral enabler that has actively supported the growth and development of fintech and payments progressively across Africa over the last 20 years. It also serves to reinforce Interswitch’s progressive outlook as a frontier-driving company which keeps pushing boundaries to facilitate the creation of new ecosystems that help businesses and individuals scale and thrive, in line with its purpose of inspiring Africa to greatness through innovation, value-creation and excellence.
The 2022 Payments Innovation Jury whose expert insights and perspectives essentially drove the report was made up of 79 senior payments leaders across 30 different markets. To give a full, 360-degree picture, a significant number of senior regulators and investors were recruited to the Jury for the first time since its inception, alongside national payments companies, banks, fintechs, and payments policy bodies. Importantly, all Jury members participate on an anonymous basis to allow them to speak freely, unencumbered by the innovation priorities of their current organisation. The 2022 report is the tenth in a series spanning 14 years.
According to Mitchell Elegbe, Founder and Group Chief Executive Officer at Interswitch, “As one of the leading and influential players in payments who regard Africa as both our origin and primary catchment market, we are extremely enthused at Interswitch to yet again facilitate this timely and important research effort, which curates practical insights and expert perspectives of senior leaders globally, and across the entire spectrum of African retail payments. It is worth mentioning that this edition coincides with the 20th anniversary of Interswitch’s inception, and I am thoroughly delighted that at such a significant milestone in our journey as a front-row contributor to payment innovation in Africa, we once again have the privilege of supporting this worthy initiative that is facilitating balanced appraisal and better understanding of the payments industry as it continues to evolve”.
It keeps adjusting its business modus operandi to keep up with global trends, unlike some that have failed to adjust and lost market share because of the failure to innovate. It is a critical endeavor that has adopted and evolved with innovation in its payment system. Human interactions through history have always thrown up the need for exchange of value-payment. The constant need for payment, necessitated the search for more efficient mediums of exchange, bringing about the evolution of payment through barter, coins, banknotes, cheques, cards and more recently, digital payment.
20 years down the lane, Interswitch recently unveiled solutions known as Mobile-Banking-As-A-Service (MBAAS). The service helps businesses push the boundaries of financial services. With this solution, businesses can offer their customers mobile banking services, with ease and affordability. Top-notch, it saves time and the cost.
According to reports on Businessday, Interswitch Banking-as-a-Service (IBAAS) is one that eases the pains of banks and their customers by improving their experiences. The solution provides banks and other financial institutions with the technology to offer services such as loans, payments, deposits, withdrawals, among others, saving them the huge cost of investing on new infrastructure to support these services.
The Interswitch-Payment-As-A-Service solution is a flexible and scalable technology platform that enables businesses to easily integrate with existing/new systems to offer seamless payment experience to their customers.
Additionally, the technology is super secured. Customers’ data and funds is paramount in business sustainability. As a secured payment platform, it has driven confidence and a robust customer experience.
Interswitch customers are glad about its ease of access, safety, and convenience. It has constantly given them solutions that provide intriguing experiences while using the app. That is why all Interswitch’s products have been carefully designed to give the end users incredible experience.
20 years on, interswitch continues to create and facilitate technology solutions and platforms that support a variety of industry ecosystems which help commerce evolve, businesses grow and individuals thrive. Its solutions and services are secure and provide convenience and real value for consumers, whilst also improving operational efficiency and driving sustainable revenue growth for businesses.
Olamide Adeniji is a member of the editorial team of TheScript Newspaper
