This archive report was first published on 15 July 2021.
July 15, 2021, marked a significant milestone for the retail sector in Zambia as Cellulant, a Pan-African payments company, rolled out Tingg, a digital payments platform that simplifies payment tools and processes for merchants.
Thirty years ago, most retailers across Africa did not accept credit cards, and mobile money was still an idea. However, the Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated digitisation for the retail sector, with roughly 50% of retail customers now requesting to pay for their purchases using digital payment options.
Unfortunately, retail businesses in major urban areas that were not equipped to handle card or mobile payments found it challenging to survive the pandemic. In Zambia, merchants and retailers have set up fragmented payment processes, contracts, and accounts to accept all forms of payments, resulting in varying user payment experiences.
“Today, digitising payments has moved from a good to have to a game-changer in what has become the new norm. However, this demand presents several challenges for most merchants who might not always support the customer’s preferred payment method, resulting in merchants having to enable multiple solutions to support multiple wallets,” says Gilbert Lungu, Country Manager for Cellulant Zambia.
Tingg offers a single integrated solution that enables businesses to allow their customers to make payments for goods and services using locally relevant payment options. The platform provides a standard and unified payment experience regardless of the payment method, slowly removing the dependency on cash and POS terminals.
More than 70% of businesses in Africa are small or medium businesses, and Cellulant aims to leverage its digital payments platform to boost growth for the retail sector by making it easy for businesses to conveniently and affordably accept payments and address the complex needs of managing payments.
