New integrated digital payment platform launched for Africa

Collaborative venture creating an integrated payment platform for Africa

A collaborative venture between MultiChoice Group, Rapyd and General Catalyst has been announced with the goal of creating an integrated payment platform for Africa. The joint venture will run as a new company, Moment, and provide payments for more than 40 African nations. More than 200 payment methods will be used to collect, disburse and manage risk. 

The three partners claim that Moment provides a more robust payment infrastructure for African businesses, enabling them to collect and process payments in a more efficient and affordable manner and according to the preferences of their clients or suppliers. Additionally, Moment will provide customers with more ways to manage their spending and savings. The objective is to change the African payments landscape by increasing the accessibility and reliability of domestic, pan-African and global digital payments. 

Roughly 90% of businesses in Africa are micro, small or medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs); add to this millions of consumers across the continent and the need for an accessible and reliable payment platform becomes obvious.  

Moment will provide a more efficient payment process and subscribers will have other added options at their disposal. Perhaps a more exciting feature is that the payment network will allow for a global payment system at the disposal of African businesses.  According to Arik Shtilman, CEO of Rapyd, there are huge opportunities for the expansion of digital payments.  

The vision for Moment is to enable an infrastructure for cross-border African payments for MSMEs operating on the continent. Furthermore, the long-term vision is to provide digital payment solutions to hundreds of millions of African consumers who currently rely on cash payments.  

Moment, and similar ventures like it, have the potential to make a significant contribution to economic development in Africa and make investment in Africa more attractive for global businesses. 

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