Mastercard and PayCentral team up to digitize SME payments in South Africa
Commercial payments companies have a lot of scope in getting businesses on digital payments method in developing nations as the businesses have traditionally relied on cash-based methods.
In such, South Africa based financial technology company, PayCentral has partnered with Mastercard to launch a DigiCentral, an online platform which will provide small business owners with ‘simple, quick and cost-effective way of paying out incentives, rewards, gifting, corporate expenses and even salaries to their employees through a prepaid virtual card’.
Back in November, Mastercard and Network International announced a partnership to introduce commercial card solutions in the Middle East and Africa region.
The virtual card will replace a physical card that can be used for eCommerce and instore purchases. For online purchases, businesses will receive a 16 digit card number and security code to complete the transaction while for instore purchases virtual cards can be loaded into any Masterpass-enabled digital wallet.
“Through our partnership with PayCentral, we can help small business owners to better meet the needs of their employees – without the costs and risks associated with cash,” says Suzanne Morel, Country Manager, Mastercard, South Africa.
The Paycentral online portal allows SMEs access to a card management platform which has full reporting capability at no monthly cost. This will allow businesses to full control of their money movement without depending on the third-party intervention. “In addition to a shift to virtual cards, PayCentral’s products also include a physical Mastercard prepaid card which allows recipients to withdraw money from any ATM and certain POS terminals countrywide”, the press release noted.