Direct Pay firm enters Botswana and Namibia

The Direct Pay Online Group, an online payments service provider in Africa, is acquiring 100 per cent equity in Virtual Card Service (VCS) in Botswana and Namibia.

This will be closely followed by the acquisition of 100 per cent of VCS business in South Africa. The acquisition follows the Group’s recent acquisition of PayGate (Pty) Ltd, the South African online payments gateway.

VCS was established in South Africa in 1996 and expanded into Botswana in 2008 and Namibia in 2010. The company is one of the leaders in developing and implementing credit, debit and smart card processing systems for all major card issuer in Southern Africa. The company’s solutions assist customers in transacting in a simple and secure online environment.

This latest transaction is the DPO Group’s second investment in Southern Africa in six months, following its investment in PayGate.

Commenting on the investment, Offer Gat, the DPO Group Chairman said, “The VCS team have built a leading market position in the Botswanan and Namibian payments landscapes by offering a suite of services to all organisations requiring automated, high volume and secure card payment processing. We look forward to working together to continue the Group’s growth story and expanding further within Africa.”

Gordon Ashby, CEO and major shareholder, VCS said, “As a management team, we believe that the firm’s knowledge of what it takes to be successful in our markets and its proven track-record of having built the business over 20 years is a great fit for our growth strategy in the future.”

DPO Group CEO Eran Feinstein said VCS Namibia and Botswana will complement the DPO Group in various areas including technology, expansion of the client base and growth in this geographical area.