PODCAST | Visa’s push for digital payments with SMEs

Visa’s aim to get more small businesses to transact digitally is the focus of this edition of the Business Day Spotlight. 

Host Mudiwa Gavaza is joined by Enoch Malisa, head merchant sales & acquiring Sub-Saharan Africa at Visa.

Malisa outlines ways in which Visa is looking to get more merchants in SA to use and accept card payments as part of a broader strategy to reduce the proliferation of cash in the economy. 

Visa is a US-based financial technology company. Mainly working in the financial services sector, the company has operations world wide, including in SA, where its logo is often featured on bank cards, ATMs and point-of-sales machines.

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The company — valued at just over $496bn — competes with MasterCard, another US-based player, whose market capitalisation is $370bn.

While Visa does not typically have a direct relationship with merchants, usually working with partners including banks, Malisa says a huge part of the job is educating people to the benefits of transacting digitally. 

As part of the effort, Visa has partnered with e-commerce player Takealot to provide financial literacy and other learning tools to SMEs that “will help them grow their business and embrace digital payments.”

The discussion reflects on Visa’s offering as a payments provider, challenges in getting more people to use digital payments methods, and efforts to bolster financial inclusion in SA. 

Business Day Spotlight is a TimesLIVE Production.