Jasper Ochieng’s unique experience as a branch manager with both local and international banks led to the development of payment gate platform.
Ochieng’ holds Bsc in Mathematics from University of Nairobi and currently pursuing his MBA in Finance and Sustainability.
He started as a sales representative with Barclays Bank in 2006 before quickly climbing up the ladder to hold managerial positions with Barclays Bank, Standard Chartered Bank and Chase Bank (Currently SBM Bank).
A career in finance exposed him to a lot of invaluable experiences, he says.
With in-depth knowledge about the payment ecosystems in the region, Mr. Ochieng’ is keen to exploit emerging opportunities around the areas of mobile payment, retail sales Receipting and fintech as disruptors in the financial landscape.
“I interacted with a lot of corporates and stakeholders and realized that many payment platforms were issuing paper receipts which were expensive and harmful to the environment,” recalls Mr. Ochieng’.
The entrepreneur says the experience ignited an idea to develop PaymentGate platform- one which helps businesses improve users’ experiences revolving around Payments Records and remain relevant in a digital world.
What does payment gate do?
“With our platform you can communicate with your customers as you issue instant digitally branded payment receipts for each payment executed. You can also monitor their experiences digitally,” says the executive.
He further refined it to keep clients information private, invoking a sense of security and confidentiality as a caring partner in their businesses.
While the digital receipts are eco-friendly, helping keep the environment clean, e-payment platforms have faced a lot of concern over their ability to keep their system secure from hackers and other cyber related frauds.
“We have sufficient security protocols across our system to make it secure. For instance we have multiple security layers in our traffic and transport ecosystems which can automatically flag down unwarranted access to the systems,” he notes.
The technology also has high integrity and only executes receipts for payment received. “There is no way it can generate a receipt for a payment that was never executed.”
He acknowledges that his dreams of supporting a sustainable payment ecosystem have been boosted by the developments in mobile money and increasing needs in banking and financial inclusion. “You can now send money and pay for bills at your convenience,” he says.
Payments via mobile money generate text messages which can be deleted or altered. So he argues, how can you provide proof of payments that you made months or years ago?
According to him, It is quite a hassle showing everyone your mobile money or bank statements to prove that you made a payment months back or many years ago. Payment gate makes all these experiences easier and extremely convenient.
How?
“Mobile money or bank statements may show a history of many unrelated transactions which one may not necessarily want to show. But with our receipts, you can show a particular transaction or payment event with ease,” he explains.
The digital receipts come with QR codes which can be scanned and verified by anyone anywhere. This offers universal verifiability which wasn’t the case previously. The inbuilt QR codes help curb fraud that is prone with physical receipts.
Once you make a payment through a mobile app, a message is generated as a text which comes with a link to the receipt. You can download, save electronically, print (ONLY WHEN NECESSARY), share via text, email or social media and perform many other functions.
It can also be customized to fit various functionalities.
The receipt can further be branded to promote a particular service or product.
User’s experiences can also be monitored via the platforms through customized questions which a customer can answer voluntarily.
“Our technology can be integrated in any payment or receipting platform from mobile money to ecommerce, supermarkets POS Systems, or banking platforms. It also has the ability to generate receipt for any value of a transaction from as low as Kshs 1 to a limitless amount,” explains Mr. Ochieng’.
The platform has been useful across many sectors with many firms embracing it including Microfinance banks, Username Investment and PesaLink- an interbank money transfer platform by Kenya Bankers Association.
Mr Ochieng’ is optimistic to use the technology to solve many operational and environmental challenges faced by businesses across the region.
Payment Gate is part of a larger Kibo Capital Group Limited which is a regional fintech leader in supporting the creation of capital and financing solutions for African entrepreneurs.
Via Startup Magazine
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