CZR, Visa in partnership talks

Kiyapili Sibanda, Business Reporter
THE Confederation of Zimbabwe Retailers (CZR) is in partnership discussions with a global technology brand, Visa to promote payment solutions to the country’s urban and rural consumers.

CZR president Mr Denford Mutashu told Business Chronicle last week that the negotiations were coming at the right time when the country was experiencing cash challenges.

Visa is a global payments technology company that connects consumers, business, financial institutions and governments in more than 200 countries and territories to ensure fast, secure and reliable electronic payments.

“We are trying to work together to promote and come up with payment solutions to link payments solutions to the market.

“The payment solution is going to help both urban and rural consumers,” said Mr Mutashu.

He said they have agreed in principle with Visa and the roll out of the programme was expected soon.

Mr Mutashu said the partnership would complement efforts being made by the Government to promote the use of plastic money.

He said the objective was to come up with a payment system that is accessible to even people that cannot afford smart phones.

According to CZR, Kenya, India and Rwanda were among the list of countries that have already adopted the Visa brand innovation which has proved very effective.

Mr Mutashu also said the cost of Point of Sale (POS) was something they were working on because procurement of the machines was still expensive.

He said although there were positive results on plastic and mobile money payments, charges on mobile payments were still high and needed to be reviewed. — @Kiyaz_Cool