South African mobile commerce provider iKhokha won the Innovation Award at the 2016 MasterCard Innovation Forum in Budapest, Hungary.
iKhokha was recognised in the innovation category for extending the acceptance of Masterpass, the digital payments service from MasterCard, into the face-to-face environment in SA for the first time.
The partnership offered customers an in-store, card-free and cash-free payment solution.
Using a low-cost iKhokha mobile point of sale device and mobile app that is powered by Masterpass, 3 500 SMEs across SA can now accept digital payments.
"Our goal is to continue to grow acceptance for card and digital payments and help SA's one million SMEs access financial services across digital, mobile and physical," says Matt Putman, CEO of iKhokha.
"Innovative distribution is as important as innovative technology ? you need both to drive real change. Through our efforts, South African business owners can now walk into a retail store, purchase a low-cost iKhokha card machine and instantly be able to accept physical and digital card payments.
"They can also sign-up online and have the iKhokha device delivered to them, even to remote areas," says Putman.
To use Masterpass, iKhokha merchants tally up the sale on the iKhokha app on their smartphones, enter the transaction amount and generate a QR code. Consumers then open the Masterpass app on their smartphone, and scan the QR code.
The MasterCard innovation awards highlight the best examples of partners that introduce payment solutions that help drive financial inclusion, engage consumers and demonstrate excellence.
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