Cellulant partners with UBA to launch gateway for cashless payments in Kenya

United Bank of Africa (UBA) Kenya has teamed with Pan-African payments business Cellulant to build a payments gateway to help Kenyans adopt cashless payments faster.

Cellulant is accelerating the fight for financial inclusion and economic wellbeing in Kenya and throughout the African continent through strategic partnerships. The digital solution will allow firms to consolidate payments into a single view, allowing for more effective collection, reconciliation, and decision-making.

Cellullant’s Country Manager Faith Nkatha Gitonga said at the launch event at the Norfolk hotel on Tuesday, “Our partnership with UBA in Kenya will enable merchants to receive, view, and reconcile all of their payments via a single application programming interface (API), eliminating the need to sign up for multiple payment providers.”

The partners and around 30 delegates from diverse industries are optimistic that the platform can help businesses overcome some of their payment constraints. The partners acknowledged that the number of worldwide cashless transactions is expected to increase by more than 80% by 2025.

“How organizations and corporations make and collect payments has significantly transformed in the last two or three years,” Faith said of payment trends. Students or parents queuing at the bursar’s office to make payments, churches passing out envelopes to collect donations, restaurants accepting cash payments, or real estate agents going about collecting rent are all soon becoming obsolete as collection methods.”

Individuals and businesses have accepted digital payments in recent years, altering the entire payments infrastructure, necessitating financial institutions to come up with new solutions to make the transition simple.

The greatest significant possibility for Africa’s economy to grow is through digital payments.

Given the tremendous digital transition taking place in Africa, only about 38% of the population will have a bank account.

‘At UBA Kenya, customer experience remains our core emphasis, and this cooperation guarantees that we always provide easy, efficient, and timely creative solutions to satisfy the ever-changing needs of our consumers,’ said Mr Chike Isiuwe, the CEO. This approach will revolutionize how people pay and how retailers and institutions collect money because it simplifies the process while lowering transaction costs.”

“Today, digitization plays a critical role in Kenyans’ financial life, and the platform corresponds with existing customer payment behaviors and is projected to promote growth for local businesses, adding positively to the country’s economic expansion.” Mr. Chike Isiuwe, CEO of UBA Kenya, stated.

Cellulants’ broad payment infrastructure includes 46 mobile money carriers in Africa, 211 banks, including the UBA Group, and service in 35 African nations with a physical presence in 18.

“Collaborations between fintechs and banks bring up more chances for businesses and their customers across all sectors of the economy to move money more easily.” Cellulant is accelerating the fight for financial inclusion and economic wellbeing in Kenya and throughout the African continent through strategic partnerships. “Using our relationship with UBA in Kenya, merchants will be able to accept, view, and reconcile all of their payments through a single application programming interface (API), eliminating the need to sign up for different payment providers,” Ms Nkatha added.