Visa announced a collaboration with Kenyan banks and fintechs to launch a new Tap To Pay service. Customers using Android handsets and Garmin wearables will be able to make contactless payments using this payment system.
During a recent media tour of its Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) Innovation Studio in Nairobi, Visa demonstrated this payment technology. Already, the global payments technology business collaborates with Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB), Absa, and Loop.
Customers can now make in-store payments using their banking App by tapping their Near-field communication (NFC)-capable smartphones at any contactless payment terminal.
Thales, a leader in digital security, is the product’s power source, and it uses Visa’s tokenization technology to give users a new level of convenience by doing away with the need for a card or physical wallet when making purchases.
Visa stated that it is constantly working with its banking partners to provide new and improved experiences for customers.
Cab hailing app Little also demonstrated how it has incorporated Visa’s Tap To Pay payments system into its driver’s app during the media tour. Customers will be able to pay for their rides using the technology, which will be available in the coming weeks.
According to the latest statistics from the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK), the use of bank cards to shop for goods and services will reach a record high of 4.4 million transactions by May 2022, up from a low of 676,275 transactions in August 2014. The rise suggests rising consumer spending and the attraction of the payment option’s convenience.
Tap To Pay is a notion that many Kenyans are unfamiliar with. Customers are increasingly focusing on making contactless payments for many of their regular transactions, but the country’s main players are still lagging behind.
Safaricom tried the service in 2021 with M-PESA 1Tap, which was the quickest way to pay using MPESA at the time. The service eventually discontinued
According to Market.us, Tap To Pay and other forms of contactless payments are predicted to be worth USD 90.6 billion by 2032, up from USD 22.4 billion in 2022, with a CAGR of 15.4% from 2023 to 2032.
