mVisa – a new mobile payment service
Visa Inc. has partnered with local banks to launch a new mobile payment service dubbed mVisa. The launch took place today, 13th September, 2016. mVisa is a new transformative way to pay and be paid with your smartphone. No need to fumble for change or hand-over your card to the merchant or queue up at your bank/ ATM to deposit and withdraw cash. Just Scan, Pay & Go. Visa is globally well renowned because of its payments service.
The local banks that have partnered with Visa to offer this service include;
- NIC Bank
- Family Bank
- KCB Bank
- Co-Operative Bank
“Kenyans already understand the benefits of mobile payments, and mVisa offers them a better way to pay and be paid, with a service which is not limited by the mobile network they have or the handset they use. The service also brings the advantages of Visa’s global network – security, reliability and global acceptance – and allows consumers to make payments both domestically and internationally.”
-Andrew Torre, Group Country Manager for Visa in Sub-Sahara Africa
The good thing is that mVisa will not only work with smartphones but also with feature phones. Using their bank’s mobile application on their smart phone or via USSD on their feature phone, customers activate mVisa then send money to anyone or pay for purchases in any retailer including supermarkets, fuel stations and ecommerce by simply transferring funds from their account to the merchant’s account via a QR or USSD code. The payment goes straight from the consumer’s bank account into the merchant’s account and provides real-time notification to both parties.
The QR code, which provides the customers with the merchant’s bank details, can be in the form of a static printout (either on the store counter or on a printed bill) or a dynamic display generated on the merchant’s mobile device. mVisa allows informal traders to accept electronic payments in a cost-effective way, without the need for point-of-sale terminals. Unlike other mobile payment solutions, mVisa uses Visa’s global transaction dispute processes to handle refunds and chargebacks.
Visa also understands how important developers are for the success of this service. It is for this reason that they have gone ahead and released the mVisa API to enable developers to create apps that accept mobile payments.
