New payment mode to save consumers’ costs

By FREDRICK OBURA

It is on a Friday evening at Sankara, a hotel in the western part of Nairobi. People are gathered to witness one of the many transformations enabled by ICT. Bata, one of the leading shoe companies in the country is unveiling an e-commerce website.

The system would enable its customers place order for shoes and get delivery at the click of a button.

The system (Bata Home)  in partnership with Pesapal— a payment gateway provider, and Aramex Delivery Ltd would save consumers the agony of getting to physical Bata outlets to buy shoes.

“Technology has brought about several efficiencies in the country, we would like to leverage on it to offer consumers efficiencies and savings,” said Nasir Rafique, Bata Kenya managing director.

“With the system, we want to help our consumers shop smart by saving on time, and fare that they use to visit our physical outlets,” he said.

Online purchases

Bata Home is a service that allows one the freedom to buy shoes from the comfort of their home or office by accessing the website; www.batakenya.com. “They can make their selection, pay online and have their shoes delivered at their home or office,” he says in an interview with Shillings&Sense.

He said the company plans to roll out the service to retail stores in the next few months, where if a customer cannot find the merchandise they are looking for, can register their details at the store. As at March 31 this year, there were 6.49 million Internet subscriptions, a 5.5 per cent increase from the previous quarter.

 The Communication Commission of Kenya (CCK) says the ease of the service through the mobile phone and  promotional offers from mobile operators, coupled with the popularity of social media among the young generation contributes  to the growth of Internet market in the country.

Entrepreneurs in the payment have trained their eyes on the development and are now coming up with payment gateways that allow consumers to buy goods and services on commercial websites.

Paysure Ltd, one of the recipients of the 2012/13 Tandaa Kenya grant, has developed a web application that facilitates the usage of Kenswitch cards to make payments over the internet. The service enables anyone who wishes to receive payment remotely to do so in a secure and flexible way, whether or not they have a website. The Paysure service relies on Kenswitch, the national payments switch, to connect to 30 financial institutions, whose cardholders will now be able to use their ATM cards to make payments online.

“The latest CCK statistics indicate that the number of internet subscribers increased by 13.48 per cent to 13.65 million users as at December  31, 2011.

Internet connection

 Many households are now connected to the Internet, either through mobile phones or personal computers,” said Kenswitch Managing director George Wainaina.

“We are coming in to offer an online payments gateway that allows the middle class and SME sector, to use debit cards to pay for goods and services online,” he said.

He observed that the model will provide an opportunity for businesses to receive payment for  goods and services from anywhere across the country.  The beneficiary funds are credited directly to one’s bank account in less than two days. 

 Information and Communication PS Bitange Ndemo said the Government has formed a steering committee that includes Nairobi City Council, Postal Corporation to work on creating addresses to homes within Nairobi for easier location. 

“We expect the steering committee to come up with solution in the next four months, this would enable location of various homes easier for flow of e-commerce,” he said.

He added that the Government was also working on a policy paper that would map devices such as computers and phones to curb Internet fraud.