Youtap solutions aim to simplify mobile payments in Africa and Asia

Youtap’s solution enables customer-initiated or merchant-initiated QR code payments for smartphones and smart point-of-sale devices. The solution conforms to the BharatQR industry standard developed by Bharat, Mastercard and Visa. Youtap’s apps can be white-labelled and branded with the logo and colours of the mobile money service.

The new solution gives any merchant or small business owner with a smartphone the potential to download Youtap’s Merchant App, self-register, and start accepting mobile money payments. Likewise, any subscriber with a smartphone can download the Youtap Pay App and start making payments. Merchants who do not own a smartphone could be provided a printed QR code to accept mobile money.

Youtap’s QR code solution enables a full range of mobile money transactions, including cash-in and cash-out transactions, airtime top-ups, bill payments and in-store payments. QR codes can also be used to give back change when a customer uses cash.

Smartphone penetration across the emerging markets is increasing significantly. Recently MTN Group published statistics on the growth of smartphones across its operating companies, including South Africa (15%), Nigeria (36%), Ghana (64%) and Côte d’Ivoire (100%). According to the GSMA, an association that represents the interests of mobile operators worldwide, smartphone adoption is expected to reach 50% by the end of 2018.

In Asia, where smartphone adoption is high, QR codes are already widely used for payments.