FinTech unveils top 10 collaborations on e-Transaction

Lagos-based Financial Technology (FT) medium has unveiled its top 10 collaborations that shape electronic transactions across the continent in the past 15 months.

Disclosing this at the weekend, the Chief executive of FT, Mr. Sola Fanawopo, noted that financial institutions, telcos, payment card companies and technology integrators are now teaming up with one another to create products and services in order to get competitive advantage through access to a partner’s resources, which include markets, technologies, capital and human capital.

He pointed out that as the barriers which hitherto separate countries began to crumble, companies located in different regions, especially in the continent of Africa, are giving credence to this borderless world through forging strategic business alliances.

Some of these alliances include the partnership between Interswitch and MasterCard Worldwide as well as between FinBank Plc and 3Line Card Management.

These collaborations, he said, have been listed as part of the “Top 10 Collaboration that Shape e-Transactions in Africa” in the last 15 months by the prime African publications that focuses on technology-enabled financial services, FinancialTechnology magazine.

Fanawopo explained that the reasons for these collaborations vary from one company to another.

He cited an instance with some of these companies who are using the alliances to access benefit from more-established channels of distribution, marketing or brand reputation of bigger, better-known players.

“Businesses that are more traditional go into the alliances for reasons such as geographic expansion, cost reduction, manufacturing, and other supply-chain synergies,” he said.

Particularly, he said, such collaborations have led to the co-branding between the likes of Interswitch and MasterCard Worldwide, which gave birth to MasterCard Verve Debit Card, a payment card that rides on the strong Nigerian local attributes of Verve debit card and international acceptance of MasterCard payment system.

Equally, he said, the partnership between FinBank and 3Line led to the introduction of FlashWallet card, stressing that through this collaboration, 3Line has provided a platform through which FinBank’s mobile platform and it’s banking host are integrated into 3Line’s platform.

The result, according to him, was the berthing of the FlashWallet into the market place; a 72k smartcard EMV2 compliant card based on the Freedom Card solution.

He further said that with the Top 10 Collaboration, customers could now use FlashWallet card at any bank’s Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) nationwide.

Additionally, he said the benefit of this development is that FlashMeCash holders now have access to more financial points to enjoy light banking services.

“This is a pioneering effort between the two organizations being the first of its kind in Africa” he said.

Other companies that made the Top 10 Collaboration include the partnership between Safaricom and Equity Bank on M-Kesho; Orange and Equity Bank on Iko Pesa; Vodacom and Nedbank on M-Pesa South Africa; Airtel, MasterCard and StanChart on Virtual Card; Equity Bank and UnionPay on Acceptance of UnionPay on Equity Bank ATMs; Econet Wireless and Trustco on Ecolife; FBN and Paypal on Intro of Paypal services to South Africa; Monitise and Paynet on International MMT in East Africa.

Remmy Nweke:
ITREALMS Online ... delivering news for ICT4D