Mastercard is to use the popular Facebook Messenger platform as a vehicle for encouraging small businesses in Africa and Asia to move to QR-code based mobile payments.
The card scheme is piloting the launch in Nigeria of a Masterpass QR bot on Messenger in collaboration with Ecobank and Zenith Bank.
To get started, businesses can send a request to the bot to enable QR payments, receive approval from the bank, set up an account and start accepting digital payments. Once the account set up process is complete, business owners can print and display the QR code in their stores or save the code on their phones. Customers can pay by either scanning the code from their smartphone or by entering the merchant ID associated with the QR code into their feature phone.
Peter Amangbo, MD/CEO of Zenith Bank, says: “This initiative will help us encourage financial inclusion within the country in line with the strategic thrust of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). Buyers and sellers now meet and conclude transactions in-store, online and on social media, so we are ensuring payments can also be made on these platforms via QR codes, without having to log onto other solutions or even take a break from what you are doing on Facebook.”