Payments firm Pesapal has integrated Samsung Pay, Apple Pay, FitBit Pay, and Google Pay remittances on its new tap-and-go contactless Sabi M010 terminals. This announcement will see business owners across the East African region conveniently accept digital wallet payments from their customers. The development is also welcome in a market that is evolving towards cashless or digital options for making payments.
The solution has proved successful in place of credit or debit cards, chip, and PIN transactions. Functionally, customers save their card details on their smart devices such as smartphones (as in the case of Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Samsung Pay), fitness bands (FitBit) or smartwatches (Apple Watch, among other tens of Android Wear smartwatches) and then tap on terminals to make payments. Now, Pesapal’s Sabi terminals will allow businesses to accept payments via the aforementioned channels.
“New payment technologies are exciting for us. With digital wallets, the ability for a consumer to transact quickly and securely enables the merchant to focus on providing more value for the customer, with the transactions taking the least time in the process. As a leading payment service provider, and especially in the hospitality and tourism industry, this will be key to stimulate spending among digital wallets users,” said Pesapal CEO Mark Mwongela.
Pesapal reports that the East African region is particularly appealing to tourists. These services can leverage the offerings of digital payments to sell more.
“Tourists carry their phones everywhere, and when local traders and businesses accept payments from digital wallets, tourists can spend more which is good for local businesses. Tourism spend helps create good quality jobs, raises the standard of living and as we have seen, leads to improved infrastructure and services for everyone,” added Pesapal CEO Mark Mwongela
Locally, people who have Apple devices or Samsung phones from the Galaxy Note 5 and S6 and newer flagships to date (Note 9), among a couple of A series handhelds, as well as Gear S2, S3, Fit2 and Gear Sport wearables are eligible for Samsung Pay.
The new payments channels are currently available for interested merchants.
