ANTON GAYLARD: Fintech providers and a cash-free world after the coronavirus
In the Business Beyond Covid series, CEOs and other business leaders and experts in their sectors look to the future after Covid-19. What effect has the pandemic and resulting lockdown had on their industries and the SA economy as a whole? Which parts will bounce back first and which will never be the same again? Most importantly, they try to answer the question: where to from here?
In the most vulnerable communities, the effects of the lockdown have been immediate and devastating. That many of the most vulnerable remain excluded from formal economic assistance and participation is becoming clearer by the day. It is vital that adoption of digital payments is accelerated during the immediate period ahead. All digital transactions offer some measure of trackability, which bodes well for improved collections for our beleaguered tax authority and also provides more direct channels for the distribution of grants and other forms of funding solutions.
This reduces risk to the employer and the wage worker, and creates exciting synergies with other service providers to offer value-added services that can be purchased via the mobile wallet app or other integrated services.We’ll also see more fintech providers establishing partnerships to serve financial products and services to the informal market. An example is the partnership between iKhokha, which provides payment acceptance devices to informal merchants, and Retail Capital.
Greater alignment between fintech suppliers and their customers can also encourage adoption of digital payments. In the hospitality industry, which has been particularly hard hit by the lockdown, an increase in self-service and order-ahead options is likely in the coming months, especially as restrictions ease and in-store trade resumes.
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