Digital Payments Advance In India And Africa

The summer, now drawing to a close, brought significant payments and commerce activity outside the Western world.

A new PYMNTS story offers an in-depth look at all the recent digital happenings in India — a country that’s experiencing more competition from the likes of Google, Amazon, Walmart-owned Flipkart and Alibaba. Online retail continues to grow in the country, and that market could hit $200 billion by 2026 if one goes by a Morgan Stanley estimate. That market will grow at a 30 percent compound annual growth rate (CAGR) until then.

“An increasing number of internet users, all new to eCommerce, will help lead this growth,” the report said.

Africa, meanwhile, represents the next great tech frontier. That’s according to Alibaba Founder and Chairman Jack Ma.

“The opportunity in eCommerce in Africa lies in the fact that Africa is lacking logistics, infrastructure and payment systems,” Ma said at a conference in Johannesburg, according to Bloomberg.

Digital payments, FinTech and eCommerce are expanding slowly, but surely, in Africa. In Kenya, banks are pursuing regulatory approval to use distributed ledger technologies (DLTs) to facilitate payments and create credit scoring models. In Nigeria, Microsoft and First Bank are linking up to bring financial services to consumers there.

Beyond that, payment firms like Stripe, Visa and other firms recently invested $8 million in Paystack, a Nigerian firm that enables developers to create payment tools via its APIs and connects multiple payment processors by handling transactions for merchants and consumers. In a new PYMNTS interview, CEO Shola Akinlade talks about the challenges of improving payments in his home country, including those related to infrastructure and connectivity.

The coming months will no doubt bring further development, innovation and investment in those areas as the move to a global digital economy continues.