BPC Eyes Niches In Sub-Saharan Africa Market

By Martin Masinde

As the paradigm shifts from the traditional method of payments to the modern ones, a company by the name BPC which stands for Banking Payment and Commerce is positioning itself to tap the potential of the sub-Saharan Africa market.

In a one-on-one conversation with the Nation, Mr Frank Molla, Managing Director for Sub-Saharan Africa at BPC said, “Payments are critical to our day to day lives especially in the way we pay, do business, move, and much more, therefore opting for a digital platform that meet today’s customer needs is essential.”

Frank also added, “Africa is happening! The potential is magnanimous and we are bracing to tap it in the best way that we can.”

If we go by the statistics, the median age of sub-Saharan Africa is 19 years, which means that we have a very young and tech-savvy population.

Most of the financial institutions have also embraced the digital way of doing things and the mobile space is swiftly expanding with new technological advancements.

Mr Molla, however said the journey has not been without its fair share of challenges ranging from regulatory, infrastructural and even geographical hurdles.

“These challenges differ from market to market and each country has its own regulatory framework, but it’s not all gloomy because these challenges can be looked at positively by creating opportunities.

“E-commerce transactions have also been on the rise and as BPC, we keep innovating and bringing the latest technology country by country because each country is moving in its own pace, “he added.

Mr Molla also highlighted some of the challenges that Covid-19 presented to them and the organisation. “There’s always something positive that comes out of every crisis and moving digital shocked us and we had to think on what needs to be the next plan of action.

One of the downturns however, was that most customers in the sub-Saharan region of Africa haven’t quite embraced the online interface and they still prefer a personal touch.” Mr Molla added.

He also concluded by saying that their solutions like the SmartVista Fraud Management turned to be a positive opportunity when the demand for e-commerce gateway services and online transactions rose.