At the Mobile World Congress 2017, Visa announced that mVisa, its QR-based payment service, will be coming to Nigeria. Already it is live in India, Kenya and Rwanda. In addition to Nigeria, other places that it become available to merchants and consumers in Egypt, Ghana, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Pakistan and Vietnam.
mVisa, a mobile solution, brings the benefits of easy and secure digital commerce to financial institutions, merchants and consumers in emerging markets – helping accelerate the global migration from cash to electronic payments.
Visa aids in overcoming merchant infrastructure issues as it allows consumers to use their mobile phones to make cashless purchases at merchant outlets, pay bills remotely and even send money to friends and family members by securely linking their Visa debit, credit or prepaid account to the mVisa application. It digitizes the underlying account and allows consumers to transfer funds from their account to the retailer’s account reliably and securely by scanning a QR code.
“Customers have told us they appreciate how fast and easy it is to use mVisa1,” said Uttam Nayak, senior vice president of digital for emerging markets, Visa Inc. “Small merchants using mVisa, for the first time, are most excited about how quickly and securely they receive electronic payments, without having to invest into expensive point of sale (POS) infrastructure. We are excited to continue to build momentum around mVisa to digitize payments with a scalable, interoperable and secure solution that benefits merchants, financial institutions and consumers.”
mVisa Merchant Benefits
mVisa is an agile solution that allows merchants around the world to immediately accept digital payments from their customers. The flexible nature of QR codes, and the fact that merchants do not need to invest in POS infrastructure, has allowed Visa and its partners to offer inventive solutions that eliminate friction for consumers who want and need to pay for goods and services around the world.
For example:
- Visa worked with Tata Sky, India’s leading direct-to-home service provider, to allow Tata Sky subscribers to recharge their account by scanning the QR code through their mobile phones directly from the TV screen or online on mytatasky.com. Tata Sky customers can now order and pay for any monthly or one-time payment services exactly when they require the services, without having to go to a Tata Sky outlet to complete their transaction.
- Mahanagar Gas Limited, a utility provider in Mumbai, issues customer bills printed with the mVisa QR code. Customers simply scan the QR code on the bill, as they would at a merchant outlet, and complete their transaction in the comfort of their own home.
The mVisa APIs and SDKs are available on the Visa Developer Platform to help simplify the integration process and allow both traditional and non-traditional players to launch new solutions more quickly.
Industry Standards
Interoperability is at the foundation of Visa and has been the driving force behind Visa’s global acceptance for more than 50 years. mVisa operates on the same foundation, as any bank’s mVisa customer – regardless of where they bank – can transact on any mVisa merchant.
The benefits of this low cost acceptance solution was also the reason behind why Visa worked with industry partners to launch BharatQR in February this year. BharatQR is India’s – and the world’s – first standardized QR code payment solution. The solution builds on mVisa’s product standards, and consumers do not need to scan different QR codes at the same merchant provided by the different payment networks. Merchants only need to display one QR code at the storefront or through the acquiring bank’s mobile application. The underlying specification for BharatQR can be implemented in other countries to deliver a globally interoperable solution.