Sylvia Duruson
Paystack, a prominent Nigerian fintech company, has extended its Virtual Terminal service to four additional African countries: Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Kenya, and South Africa. This expansion marks a significant step in streamlining in-person payment processes across the continent.
The Virtual Terminal allows merchants to generate unique QR codes for their employees, including cashiers, delivery riders, and sales agents. Customers can easily make payments by scanning these QR codes, choosing from various payment options such as mobile money, cards, or Apple Pay. The system then sends instant payment confirmations to the staff member’s WhatsApp.
Paystack’s solution offers flexibility and control to merchants. They can disable QR codes at any time, change the associated WhatsApp numbers, and set up multiple notification recipients for each transaction. This versatility enhances operational efficiency and security.
The company highlights the ease of use and cost-effectiveness of the Virtual Terminal. Merchants can create and assign multiple QR codes directly from their Paystack Dashboard, eliminating the need for physical POS devices and significantly reducing operational costs.
Initially launched in Nigeria in 2021, the Virtual Terminal has proven successful for various businesses, including retail stores, restaurants, and pay-on-delivery services. It enables these enterprises to accept in-person payments on a large scale without incurring hardware costs.
By bringing Paystack’s seamless online checkout experience to physical locations, the Virtual Terminal simplifies the payment process. It also includes real-time payment notifications, keeping users informed about their transactions.
The Virtual Terminal integrates all the benefits of the Paystack ecosystem. These include international payments, split payments, simplified end-of-day accounting, and mobile payment tracking. This comprehensive approach ensures a smooth and efficient payment experience for both merchants and customers.
One of the key features of the Virtual Terminal is its ability to offer a single QR code that provides customers with various payment methods optimized for their specific region. In Côte d’Ivoire, customers can use MTN MoMo, Wave, Orange Money, Visa, Mastercard, and Apple Pay. Ghanaian customers have access to MTN MoMo, Telecel Cash (formerly Vodafone Cash), AirtelTigo Money, Visa, Mastercard, and Apple Pay.
In Kenya, the available payment methods include M-PESA, Visa, Mastercard, American Express, and Apple Pay. South African customers can use Scan to Pay, SnapScan, EFT, Visa, Mastercard, American Express, and Apple Pay. This diverse range of payment options ensures that the Virtual Terminal caters to local preferences and financial ecosystems in each country.
Paystack’s expansion of the Virtual Terminal service comes on the heels of a significant development in its home country of Nigeria. In April 2022, the company quietly obtained a switching and processing license from the Central Bank of Nigeria. This license allows Paystack to directly route financial transactions between financial institutions, further enhancing its capabilities in the Nigerian market.
As a Stripe-owned fintech company, Paystack’s continued innovation and expansion demonstrate its commitment to improving payment solutions across Africa. The Virtual Terminal’s launch in these four countries represents a significant step towards modernizing and simplifying in-person payment processes throughout the continent.
