Comesa Business Council assesses digital payments

Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa) Business Council says the Malawi’s digital payments infrastructure is fairly ripe for implementation of the integrated regional retail platform system.

The system is expected to be rolled out in the fourth quarter (October-December) of this year.

Zambia-based Comesa Business Council chief operating officer Jonathan Pinifolo said this in an interview yesterday following a week-long visit to the country to assess progress on the implementation of a digital financial inclusion programme.

The programme is expected to facilitate regional digital financial services for micro small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in Malawi and four other countries.

Pinifolo, a Malawian, said the programme is now in its third phase following the adoption of the programme’s business model on implementation and operations of digital retail payments scheme, whose key focus is on assessment of the status of the regional and national payment infrastructure.

He said: “In terms of payments infrastructure, Malawi is doing well on interoperability with various service providers such as commercial banks and non-banks as well as other service providers.

“This is in alignment with level one design principles of the programme. The only area which needs improvement is on interoperability with other service providers outside the country, which is part of regional integration.”

Pinifolo said the programme is at a critical stage which will inform the Comesa Retail Payments Platform’s overall infrastructure design, technical, functional, legal and regulatory requirements, estimated cost of equipment and implementation mechanism.

In an interview, Chamber for Small and Medium Enterprises executive secretary James Chiutsi described the initiative as critical for financial inclusion.

“This is a good initiative which, if implemented, would provide safety to businesses as they would keep money in their wallet, thereby reducing the risk of losses or theft,” he said.

The Reserve Bank of Malawi has since indicated that Malawi will continue to collaborate with relevant stakeholders to implement measures aimed at promoting digital financial inclusion and increasing digital solutions.