Dethroning cash to make e-payments king

Kenya: Recent developments in Kenya’s payments space are cause for excitement for us in the payments technology business. The impending increased adoption of cashless transactions heralds a new dawn for the economy. With the financial and retail sectors pushing strongly for the use of electronic payments, Kenya is poised to join the ranks of South Africa and Nigeria in championing this mode of payment. In addition, the migration of banks to EMV (Europay, MasterCard and Visa) standards, and the adoption of cashless payments in the transport sector from July are indicators of a promising year ahead for the e-payments sector. According to the MasterCard Advisors Cashless Journey report released in September last year, Kenya is classified as a country whose use of electronic payments is still at its inception stage. This means the country is just now beginning to shift away from cash usage but still requires large investments in payment infrastructure to fast-track adoption of cashless transactions. In comparison, South Africa, where electronic payments account for 40 to 60 per cent of the value of all consumer payments (unlike Kenya’s estimated 2 to 3 per cent), is considered a transitioning market, with a recently developed fully modern payments infrastructure. StandardMedia