Kifiya Financial Technologies, an Ethiopian payment solution company, in collaboration with Mastercard, launches its international payment solutions – Mela- in Washington D.C.
As first step in enabling the African Diaspora, all Ethiopians, within the country and living abroad as well as all citizens can now seamlessly pay for bills with Mela – the Kifiya remittance to payment platform.
Mela is a digital payment platform for African’s living abroad, enabling them to pay for their family and friends’ utility bills, school fees, hospital fees, health insurance and other house hold expenditure in Ethiopia.
Empowering consumers with full control, Mela helps citizens to manage their bills from anywhere in the world, or within the country. Ethiopians can pay for bills using their debit and credit cards. Remote access is vitally important for millions of Ethiopian’s living outside of the country, and now consumers have this ability at the click of a button.
Consumers can rest assured that their payments via Mela are secure because of the inclusion of the Mastercard Gateway Services platform, which ensures all information is protected and that funds are received where they should be, on time every time. This applies to payments coming from the United States, or within the country.
Mela is accessible via the Kifiya website, the next launch phase of the solution will see it also available via the mobile app – available for IOS and Android phones. Additionally, the solution can also be accessed via agents. The ease of access will help consumers cut down on time spent walking to different locations to make payments, as well as eliminating the risk of paying bills using cash. This also helps citizens outside of the country from having to worry about their family’s security.
Thousands of retailers and other service providers will be able to accept payments via Mela. Kifiya’s commitment to all citizens is that in the near future, all local merchants will be using Mela.
“With this solution, family members living overseas will now be able to pay bills directly, with the peace of mind that comes from knowing the money is being used where intended,” adds Chris Bwakira, Vice President and Area Business Head for East Africa, Mastercard. “This partnership is working towards helping consumers move beyond cash, ensuring they are able to transact safely from anywhere in the world.”
“We are excited about launching a modern and global remit to pay platform. We are equally excited in launching the service in partnership with Mastercard with their aim of digitally including 100 million people by 2020 in Africa. We believe that such a service is the first of its kind and hopefully will create a new class of remittance solutions,” concludes Munir Duri, CEO of Kifiya Financial Technology.