Multichoice set to penetrate Africa’s fintech space

MultiChoice Group, the parent firm of DStv, SuperSport, and other media businesses, is forming a new fintech joint venture with the purpose of developing an “integrated payment platform for Africa.”

The collaboration comes as MultiChoice looks to expand its operations, and it will operate under the newly formed corporation and brand Moment. The group’s traditional pay television industry is under increasing strain as a result of the difficult economy and a flood of new streaming competitors that offer consumers a much-enhanced choice of viewing options.

‘Moment’ will integrate MultiChoice Group’s annual payment processing, which totals US$3.5 billion (R69 billion). “‘Moment’ provides expanded payment infrastructure for businesses across Africa to help them collect and make payments easier, faster, and more affordable in any manner that their buyers or suppliers prefer,” according to the organisation.

“Moment will also provide consumers with additional options for spending and saving money more wisely.” The goal is to “transform the African payments landscape by making digital payments more accessible and reliable for domestic, cross-border, and global payments,” according to the statement.

According to Calvo Mawela, CEO of MultiChoice Group, the new venture would “address the need for an accessible and reliable payment platform for many small businesses and millions of African consumers.”

“Investing in this venture is a logical progression for us, as we already process payments every month from 22 million households across 50 countries. Moment fulfills our strategy to expand our ecosystem by investing in adjacent businesses that provide scalable services, underpinned by technology,” Mawela said.

According to MultiChoice, the longer-term objective is to reduce reliance on cash payments by providing the infrastructure for pan-African payments for the continent’s 44 million small businesses. “Moment aims to make digital transactions more accessible to the 350 million underbanked or unbanked consumers,” the business stated.

Eventually, ‘Moment’ intends to “collect, disburse, and manage risk” by accepting payments from more than 40 countries and hundreds of payment methods. It intends to encourage the adoption of PayShap, a South African real-time payment system, and other related real-time payment systems. Furthermore, it seeks to facilitate global-African commerce by providing importers and exporters with virtual accounts in over 40 different currencies and local payments in over 130 countries.