The history of money as the medium for exchange of value is deep. From trade by barter to the use of cowries, humans have always figured out how to exchange goods and services for value. And across centuries and kingdoms, the quest for improving the efficiency and safety of that exchange has remained. The 7th century China invented paper money during the Tang dynasty. The Mongol Empire and Yuan dynasty scaled it. The trajectory to frictionless exchange of value has never stopped.
Today, we’re in the age of digital payments with cards used as a medium for exchange. Interswitch recently unveiled a Tap-to-Pay service which allows cardholders to make fast, secure, and convenient in-store payments by tapping their NFC-enabled smart device at contactless-enabled payment terminals.
This simply turns a connected device such as a smartphone to act as a safe and secure payment method in the same way as a physical card. For security, they baked in the tokenization feature, which replaces sensitive data such as the 16-digit account information with a unique digital identifier known as a token.
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As I have written many times, security, privacy, and trust, will drive the next phase of payment penetration in Africa. Companies who deepen capabilities in those domains will win more territories and markets.
This is the application utility era in Africa, and more sectors will move digital. Providing secure payment infrastructure and systems will be catalytic for that redesign. Why? At the heart of the entrepreneurial movement, payment will remain the operating system since everyone would like to be paid, securely.
Interswitch is part of our Funders of Future, organizations which support the mission of Tekedia Institute by providing generous scholarships to many young people. We admire its innovation and wish it more wins in the market.
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