FEATURE
As a payment solution provider , OMA Emirates covers the full scope of issuance , acquiring , and retail POS solutions . Its card issuance and management solutions are leveraged for debit and credit cards , consumer loyalty cards , and other requirements for services based industries . Within Africa its portfolio of customer names includes Al Barid Bank , CAM Bank , Ministry of Habous , Stareo , Transdev . As a payment services provider entrant into Africa , it is important for OMA Emirates to evaluate its initial point of entry , roll out milestones , partnership strategy and sales model taking into consideration the realities of the African continent .
On the Middle East side , OMA Emirates started the acquiring business in 2006 and along with its software capability in issuance is now a service provider for telecommunication companies . It is currently a supplier for e-vouchers for mobile top-ups and utility payments . “ First we were selling software . Then we started with services . And then we created an ecosystem and combined both of them , explains Niranj Sangal , Group CEO , OMA Emirates Group . “ That is how we started the whole business .”
Progressing through the end to end solution and services ecosystem of issuance and acquiring as well retail POS , brought up some significant opportunities for OMA Emirates to reposition itself both in Africa and Middle East . “ We found that there is huge disconnect between all three platforms when it comes to creating an end to end ecosystem .” As an example , he points out across the Middle East region , almost all banks inside a country typically issue debit and credit cards , amongst others and hence are termed as issuing banks . However , a much smaller number of these banks invest in acquiring the payment cycle of spending , and those that do are called the acquiring banks . Inside UAE there are only four banks playing the role of acceptance , and all other UAE issuing banks depend on these four to complete the payment cycle . “ This is the standard case worldwide . I mean everybody does not get into it .”
The decade plus experience of OMA Emirates in the end to end , payment
Phone is the carrier in Africa today . If I do a payment transaction , the line that carries it , is through the telecom services provider , says Niranj Sangal , Group CEO OMA Emirates Group .
services provider role , has also prompted it to look more closely at the under-utilised role of the retail POS terminal . In day to day life , the maximum frequency of visits by most consumers is to a retail outlet for purchases . This is in comparison to visits to an ATM kiosk , using a mobile device for e-commerce or a PC device for Internet and e-commerce . The POS terminal inside a retail outlet is mostly setup by acquiring banks for the purpose of collecting merchant transactions from an issuing bank ’ s customers . But the POS terminal can also be reconfigured by payment service providers like OMA Emirates , for the acquiring bank to facilitate utility payments , as an example , amongst other payment options .
A consumer at a coffee shop or a provision store can therefore not only pay for their coffee or provisions at the time of check out , but also if prompted pay for their overdue utility payment , near to expire parking ticket , and other integrated services .
The African continent also has its nuances of how retail transactions are conducted . The high risks associated with cash and the lack of access to formal banking channels , has migrated consumer transactions to mobile based payments . Telecommunication service providers like Vodacom , Safaricom , have been instrumental in building the enabling platforms for mobile money transactions . “ Africa is more of a continent where we are talking of cashless on mobiles predominately . Cash is a very risky thing in Africa . I am not saying all the countries but most of the countries have cash as a problem to carry .” Access to ATM kiosks in Africa are also fewer and their
28 INTELLIGENTCIO www . intelligentcio . com