South Africa’s Nedbank has formed an alliance with MasterCard and local fintech company, Ukheshe to launch a Money Message service that allows customers to pay the small business via WhatsApp. Once small and microbusinesses get registered on the platform, they can send a WhatsApp request-to-pay message to customers with a valid South African identity document and bank account.
Other institutions have released banking functionality that works through WhatsApp. Money Message was specifically developed to process payments for merchants and small businesses. Rather than a banking plug-in, it is an innovative payment system that meets the unique needs of South African entrepreneurs.
The system is still in beta mode and available only to micro-businesses. It will soon be available to all small business owners in the region.
Businesses that use this service for the first time will receive a notification via SMS prompting them to register for the service. After the registration, they can make payments through WhatsApp via a mobile phone number or a quick response (QR) code.
Small businesses use Money Message for easy transactions
Chipo Mushwana, executive of emerging payments at Nedbank said, "Money Message looks to overcome a variety of cost, security, and technical barriers by enabling micro-merchants and their customers to transact with each other on WhatsApp".
“The need for a diverse range of contactless payment methods is more important today than we could have possibly imagined, as we seek to rebuild the economy by giving businesses the ability to transact in a safe and secure way,” Chipo added.
Nedbank delivers low-cost, accessible, and flexible solutions that leverage widely accessible technologies to support entrepreneurship and sustainable business growth across all markets.
Mike Smits, co-founder of Ukheshe said chat commerce is seeing exponential growth across the globe. “We are excited to partner with Nedbank and take the lead in South Africa with its new Money Message product, and help our customers to remain innovative through the use of market-leading transactional platforms”.
“Every business owner is looking for ways to increase sales and reach out to new customers using different channels. By enabling smaller businesses to request digital payment through WhatsApp, smaller businesses can achieve these goals and create greater customer loyalty with little to no investment using their phone” said Suzanne Morel, country manager, Mastercard SA.