BY OUR REPORTER
Youtap, a global provider of contactless mobile payments and financial services software, has started a QR code solution and smartphone apps for mobile money services in Africa and Asia.
Youtap’s solution enables customer-initiated or merchant-initiated QR code payments for smartphones and smart point-of-sale devices.
The solution conforms to the Bharat QR industry standard developed by Bharat, Mastercard and Visa. Youtap’s apps can be white-labelled and branded with the logo and colours of the mobile money service.
The new solution gives any merchant or small business owner with a smartphone the potential to download Youtap’s Merchant App, self-register, and start accepting mobile money payments.
Likewise, any subscriber with a smartphone can download the Youtap Pay App and start making payments.
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Merchants who do not own a smartphone could be provided a printed QR code to accept mobile money.
Youtap’s QR code solution enables a full range of mobile money transactions, including cash-in and cash-out transactions, airtime top-ups, bill payments and in-store payments.
QR codes can also be used to give back change when a customer uses cash.
Smartphone penetration across the emerging markets is increasing significantly. Recently MTN Group published statistics on the growth of smartphones across its operating companies, including South Africa (15%), Nigeria (36%), Ghana (64%) and Côte d’Ivoire (100%).
According to the GSMA, an association that represents the interests of mobile operators’ worldwide, smartphone adoption is expected to reach 50 per cent by the end of 2018.