South African fintech startup Yoco has launched payment solutions for small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) in the country, the media reported.
The new payments platform launched by Yoco will help businesses in South Africa sustain their cash flows as a national lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic has brought everything to a standstill.
Yoco has launched three new payment platforms that are designed to help businesses securely accept online payments, track and reconcile invoices and payments, both online and offline.
The three payment platforms are – Payment Page, Gift Vouchers, and Payment Request.
Katlego Maphai, co-founder and chief executive officer at Yoco told the media, “Yoco’s mission has always centered around helping small businesses thrive and supporting them is more important now than ever before. The national lockdown has had a severe impact on our merchants. Through our platform and the results of a recent merchant survey, we have seen up to a 90% decrease in in-person transactions since the lockdown began. We knew that the best way to support our merchants was to develop products that would enable them to do business online and keep money coming in through this period.”
Earlier this month, the South African government launched a new fintech innovation hub. In order to do so, the government collaborated with several other state-owned agencies.
Called the Intergovernmental Fintech Working Group (IFWG) Innovation Hub, it is designed to meet the rapid changes caused by fintech in the financial sector globally.
It will support the sector in introducing innovations that complement the core mandates of regulators, including financial stability, consumer protection, financial inclusion and fair lending practices.