3G Direct, Payoneer target Africa’s travel e-payments

The two firms are focusing on mass payments. PHOTO | FILE  

By Okuttah Mark

In Summary

• While 3G Direct Pay focuses on online payments, Payoneer provides mass pay-out capabilities.

E-commerce payments solution providers 3G Direct Pay and Payoneer have signed a new partnership to provide payments covering entire world for hospitality industry in Africa.

Under the deal, hotels, airlines, and travel agents, among other players, will send and receive money online at lower-costs. While 3G Direct Pay focuses on online payments, Payoneer provides mass pay-out capabilities.

“We are excited about this opportunity to deliver added value to our clients within the hospitality industry in Africa. Through this new partnership with Payoneer, we will bring together a payment processing platform with sophisticated global mass payout capabilities,” said Eran Feinstein, managing director of 3G Direct Pay.

Payoneer has strong presence in emerging markets through Asia and Latin America and says the new deal provides an opportunity to “grow our reach throughout Africa.”

“Payoneer is the perfect complement to 3G Direct Pay in enabling global cross-border payment solutions. Using technology, compliance, and infrastructure, Payoneer connects businesses, professionals, countries and currencies with its innovative payment solutions,” Jonny Steel, VP for marketing at Payoneer added.

Feinstein explained that while the geographical scope of this partnership focuses on Africa, it also extends beyond Africa.

“There are new types of payments, which create a lot of disruption from the business perspective. As the world changes, we are continuously asking ourselves what more we can do to empower global commerce. The online payments market is huge and we firmly believe that we are positioned to be one of the players that decisively drives innovation,” Feinstein noted.

The 3G Direct Pay controls 90 per cent of East Africa’s online payment — mostly in the travel industry where it is connected to more than 250 hotels, airlines and tour companies in Kenya, Tanzania and Zambia.

It has been providing online payment services via Visa, MasterCard, American Express, JCB, and PayPal with the company’s executives saying the region has low incidents of fraud of only 0.05 per cent compared to 2.5 per cent global average.

Three years ago 3G Direct Pay, entered into a deal with Safaricom and Airtel for real-time update of transactions made through money transfer services, M-Pesa and Airtel Money.

mokuttah@ke.nationmedia.com