With digital banking providing consumers with more efficient ways to access banking records and complete financial transactions outside of local branches, Kenyan agency banking startup Tanda is also working hard to collaborate with other fintech so as to capture the price-sensitive market with innovative, open-loop digital payment solutions in East Africa. The retail-tech announced that it is now leveraging Ukheshe Technologies’ cutting-edge Eclipse API to increase its digital banking offering in Kenya and East Africa to include QR payments, digital wallets, and the issuing of physical and virtual cards.
Geoffrey Mulei, CEO of Tanda says the startup chose to partner with Ukheshe because of the dramatically simplified manner in which its digital wallets, card issuing, and acquiring can be rolled out.
“Traditionally, these capabilities have either been highly inaccessible or cost-prohibitive for a significant majority of players in the fintech space and can take several years to deploy. The Tanda-Ukheshe collaboration has the potential to close these critical gaps, as it enables cheap transactions on digital platforms and accelerates the deployment of banking infrastructure,” said Mr. Mulei.
The move will empower Tanda agents and merchants throughout East Africa to implement 100,000 physical touchpoints within the next 24 months. According to Mark Dankworth, President International, Ukheshe Technologies, the region is poised for a surge in digital banking growth, with the likes of MCQR and virtual cards likely to make the biggest impact.
Dankworth says that despite Kenya’s continued innovation in financial services, thanks to mobile money platforms like MPESA, a report from FSD Kenya suggests that between 2016 and 2019, traders received over 90% of their revenue in cash. He noted that touchless, paperless digital innovations will likely accelerate exponentially in East Africa and across the entire continent in the coming future.
“High transaction fees on many digital payment platforms, coupled with inadequate access to traditional banking infrastructure, have limited the greater adoption of digital payments, particularly in the more price-sensitive sectors of the market of the Kenyan and East African region,” said Dankworth.
Ukheshe is providing financial service players, telecommunications providers, and other organizations in the region, with truly digital-first solutions thanks to the Eclipse API, making informal banking an accessible and lucrative growth market.
“As the East African region remains heavily under-served, collaborating with Tanda as an enablement partner ensures we can be at the forefront of providing the right solutions to increase the uptake and use of digital payments,” he noted.
Eclipse is an orchestration framework layer that enables single API integration to access multiple payment solutions with the inclusion of third-party products. Through it, clients are able to customise and cherry-pick from a vast range of payment products offering them with seamless payment solutions that are as convenient and affordable.
Read Also: Kenya banking startup Tanda is now expanding regionally after it secured funding last month
