Receiving money as soon as you ask for it, say in a text chat, is a joy! Innovations like WhatsApp banking were precisely built to satisfy this. Well, Nedbank South Africa, in partnership with Mastercard and Ukheshe – a South African fintech player, has launched such a product – called Money Message.
This gives you the ability to make payments to businesses within WhatsApp. It as well lets small and micro businesses receive secure in-chat payments from their customers via the chat app. Nedbank says the feature has been specifically developed to process payments for merchants and small businesses.
How does Nedbank’s Money Message work?
Nedbank’s Money Message allows merchants to send an invoice requesting payment from any customer through WhatsApp. The customer can then settle payment directly within the app.
If you are a first-time user, a notification is sent to your phone via SMS prompting you to register. You then have to enter your name and register your card details to make the payment securely. This means that you can make secure, cardless payments via a cellphone number or a QR code.
Who can use the Money Message feature?
Anyone with a valid South African identity document and a South African bank account can access Money Message. Merchants will first need to register for the service.
A statement from Nedbank reads as follows:
“To support entrepreneurship and sustainable business growth across all markets, we need to deliver low-cost, accessible, and flexible solutions that leverage widely accessible technologies. Money Message looks to overcome a variety of cost, security, and technical barriers by enabling micro-merchants and their customers to transact with each other easily on an existing platform, which is WhatsApp.”
