According to PWC’s Payments 2025 & Beyond Report, the number of worldwide cashless transactions is expected to increase by more than 80% between 2020 and 2025. Individuals and businesses have accepted digital payments in recent years, altering the entire payment system.
“Organizations are increasingly going cashless; from global businesses such as airlines to local restaurants, or Instagram businesses and schools,” remarked Faith Nkatha, Country Manager, Cellulant Kenya at a UBA Kenya and Cellulant customer launch event.
The event, which took place at the Norfolk Hotel on Tuesday, May 10th, 2022, follows the Pan-African Group alliance announced in March 2022 between The United Bank for Africa PLC and renowned Pan-African payments provider Cellulant.
Speaking to trends in payment behaviors, Faith said “How organizations and businesses make and collect payments has radically shifted in the last two or three years. Students or parents queuing to make payments at the bursar, churches giving envelopes to collect offerings, restaurants receiving cash payments or real estate agents going round to collect rent; all these are quickly becoming outdated as collection methods.”
The event brought together 30 organizations from the FMCG, insurance, education, diplomatic, and public sectors to demonstrate the new digital platform, which will allow for smooth payment, collection, and reconciliation processes. The digital solution will allow firms to consolidate payments into a single view, allowing for more effective collection, reconciliation, and decision-making.
Speaking on the partnership, Mr. Chike Isiuwe, The CEO, UBA Kenya said: ‘At UBA Kenya, customer experience remains our key focus and this partnership ensures that we constantly provide easy, efficient and timely innovative solutions to meet the ever-changing needs of our customers. This solution will change how individuals make payment and how merchants and institutions collect as it eases the process while also reducing transaction costs.”
UBA Kenya began operations in Kenya in October 2009, with a focus on local and multinational corporations, small and medium-sized businesses, public and private institutions. The Bank has increased its reach to 5 locations across the country, with new branches in Nakuru and Mombasa recently launched. UBA Kenya has a bold growth strategy that includes expanding into important Kenyan cities as well as growing up its digital products through the bank’s new Innovation Hub at Imperial Court in Westlands.
“Digitisation plays a pivotal role in the financial lives of Kenyans today and the platform aligns with current customer payment behaviors and is expected to spur growth for local businesses, contributing positively to the expansion of the country’s economy,” added Mr. Chike.
Cellulant, founded in 2003, has an extensive payments infrastructure partnering with 46 mobile-money operators in Africa, 211 banks including UBA Group and serves 35 African countries with a physical presence in 18.
“Fintechs and banks’ collaborations open more opportunities that make the movement of money easier for businesses and their consumers across all sectors of the economy. Through strategic partnerships, Cellulant is accelerating the drive for financial inclusion and economic wellbeing in Kenya and across the African continent. Our partnership with UBA in Kenya will enable merchants to receive, view, and reconcile all their payments via a single application programming interface (API), cutting out the need to sign up for multiple payment providers,” Faith Nkatha Gitonga, Country Manager, Cellulant Kenya.
