Nosa Alekhuogie
An indigenous software development company Upperlink, licensed by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) as a Payment Solution Service Provider (PSSP) announced it has signed a partnership agreement with a global payment and financial service company – as a Payment Facilitator, as it expands international market options for local merchants with Upperlink Paygate – a proprietary payment gateway collection platform.
Managing Director of Upperlink, Mr. Segun Akano, said Paygate would address an apparent lack in the commercial sector pertaining to collections for merchants in both local and foreign currency. “It will meet the needs of businesses across Africa, as these businesses can now connect with a wider range of potential customers across the globe.”
He said this edge is what made the Paygate platform “an invaluable tool for merchants in Sub-Saharan Africa, as it provides them with a better way of doing business and in the process improves the foreign exchange earnings of the country,”, he explained further.
The collaboration with this global payment company has enabled the company to leverage the benefits of its services and led to the deployment of Upperlink Paygate.
“Upperlink PayGate is robust and has the capabilities to process payment across all card schemes including MasterCard, American Express, China UnionPay and others. The lack of accessibility to services such as this has resulted in the inability of merchants to expand their business into the international market due to the absence of a medium through which income can be received from foreign customers,” Akano said.
The partnership would provide Upperlink with the infrastructure, competence, and support necessary for businesses, sub-merchants, and aggregators to begin accepting card payments.
“By taking advantage of its partner’s unique capabilities, Upperlink Paygate offers a platform for businesses across sub-Saharan Africa to receive payments from clients all over the world in both local and foreign currency,”, he said.
According to him, with its simplified and secure services, Paygate provides self-onboarding services, fast settlements, and competitive transaction rates” and the flexibility to accommodate the needs of individuals, SMEs, and large corporations.
In its over two decades of operation, the company has employed cutting-edge technologies to develop landmark solutions that cater to the enterprise needs of corporate and individuals with suitable long-term solutions that currently thrive in both the corporate and government sectors.
With Upperlink Paygate, the firm would be able to underwrite onboard merchants and businesses and then provide them with the technology required to process electronic payments and receive the funds from those payments. “This will create a veritable alternative for the growth of the e-payment space in Nigeria and Sub-Saharan Africa,” he added.
Upperlink’s real-time, API-driven onboarding or hosted enrolment process allows for faster time to market and ensures a smoother payment enablement experience. There are developers’ sandbox and API to various e-commerce platforms.
By becoming a payment facilitator, the company bears the risks and oversight inherent in payment processing.
The company enables seamless payments by activating payment processing immediately upon signing up for an organization’s core service or platform and statutory compliance and KYC checks.
