by TINTSWALO BALOYI
JOHANNESBURG, (CAJ News) – MASTERCARD and Bidvest Bank have partnered for a solution enabling customers to send international remittances.
Titled Bidvest Bank BidSend, the new solution is powered by Mastercard cross border services.
The latter is a real-time payment network that enables users to send money to 103 countries and allows senders to select their beneficiary’s preferred choice of pay-outs as cash, onto a mobile wallet or as bank account payments.
Through this innovative technology, Bidvest Bank is poised to transform traditional remittance channels, allowing account and non-account-bearing consumers, to send money across borders at a price it hails as affordable.
“Providing innovative solutions that deliver the choice, security, and flexibility that South Africans need and expect is a factor win we take pride in,” said Gabriel Swanepoel, Country Manager at Mastercard, Southern Africa.
“MasterCard is delighted to collaborate with Bidvest Bank to make this level of payment ingenuity a reality for Bidvest Bank -customers giving MasterCard an opportunity to bring millions of people from underserved communities into the financial and digital economy.”
In what is lauded as a first for Africa, Bidvest Bank and Mastercard have been enabled through WhatsApp as a transactional channel.
Tendani Sikhwivhilu, Chief Financial Officer at Bidvest Bank, said the offering leverages the latest technology to create an affordable and accessible solution that is cost-effective and efficient.
“By digitising money remittance on the WhatsApp platform, we are changing the payments narrative in the country, and we are ensuring it is inclusive by allowing anyone to use the solution and not just Bidvest Bank account holders,” Sikhwivhilu said.
World Bank data shows that remittances in Sub-Saharan Africa are US$54,44 billion, with research showing that around $95,6 billion flows into the continent annually.
Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya and Senegal receive the greatest remittance inflows, while South Africa is the largest sender of remittances to other countries in Africa.
– CAJ News