Visa, Moneta Team To Enhance Digital Payments In Ethiopia, Kenya

Moneta Technologies’ Amole, Ethiopia’s mobile eWallet platform, has teamed up with Visa to launch a strategic partnership that supports digital payments in the region, according to IBS Intelligence.

The tie-up will help Amole merchants secure cashless payments in Ethiopia and Kenya. The Amole eCommerce Gateway will tap the Visa CyberSource infrastructure that supports digital payments for merchants and banks. The collaboration seeks to take down the barriers to regional and cross-border eCommerce in the region, the report stated.

Those Ethiopian banks that have licensing from international card associations can now use the Amole eCommerce Gateway to acquire international cards online on behalf of their merchants, according to the report.

“Today, with this partnership, we can accept digital payments from anywhere,” said Moneta Technologies Founder and CEO Yemiru Chanyalew in a statement. “As recently as 2018, a developer or business owner in Ethiopia did not have the ability to accept online payments until Amole introduced its open [application programming interface (API)] platform in July 2018. We started Amole to become the payment and commerce platform to harness the great potential inherent in the B2B2C market that makes Ethiopia the sleeping giant.”

Amole extends APIs to assist developers in creating experiences for digital payments that offer custom checkout experiences, the report stated. Other tools include bulk transfers, airtime top-up, customer verification, and more.

It also supports localized payment channels — mobile money, USSD, mobile app, QR code and Telegram Bot payments — built into its platform that supports 8,000 merchants, according to the report.

“Embracing digital payments and a potentially cashless society is where the future lies,” said Visa Country Lead for Ethiopia Abebe Girmay in a statement. “Visa is investing more than ever in our global assets, infrastructure and digital capabilities to reshape the future of commerce. For merchants, digital payments mean reducing costs associated with handling and losing cash and broadening their customer base as more and more people move away from cash.”

Ethiopia softened banking rules nearly two years ago as it sought to expand financial offerings to residents changing nationalities.