Visa has unveiled new capabilities for its Visa Accept and Visa Direct platforms aimed at enabling small businesses in emerging markets to accept digital payments and make real-time payouts using only a smartphone.
The payment technology company said the enhancements are designed to help micro and small businesses, including street vendors and online merchants, manage transactions without investing in traditional point-of-sale terminals.
The new Visa Accept solution transforms a smartphone into a payment terminal, allowing merchants to accept card payments through their Visa debit or prepaid accounts via their banking apps. Customers can pay by tapping their cards or through payment links, with merchants receiving funds in near real time.
Visa said the solution would help businesses improve cash flow while reducing the cost of accepting digital payments.
“Every tap, scan and swipe is now a defining moment in the customer relationship, and small businesses can’t afford for payments to get in the way,” said Shahebaz Khan, Senior Vice President and Head of Commercial and Money Movement Solutions for Central and Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa at Visa.
He said the company envisions a future where a single smartphone serves as a complete business tool for accepting payments, accessing business insights and managing operations.
Visa cited its Global SMB Macro Trends Report, which found that 99 percent of surveyed small and medium-sized businesses use at least one digital financial tool, while 85 percent said such tools had positively impacted their operations.
The company also noted that around 530 million of the world’s 1.3 billion unbanked adults already own smartphones, presenting significant opportunities to expand access to digital financial services.
Visa said Visa Accept is currently available in more than 25 countries and will soon be launched in Ghana through banking partners, including Access Bank, OmniBSIC Bank and Universal Merchant Bank (UMB).
The company expects the solution to reach millions of merchants globally by 2027.
In addition, Visa enhanced its Visa Direct platform to enable businesses to make real-time payouts directly from their smartphones.
The platform allows business owners to pay employees, contractors and suppliers, process customer refunds and transfer funds across borders to eligible bank accounts, payment cards and digital wallets through integrated banking and fintech applications.
Visa said the combined solutions are intended to simplify payment acceptance and money movement for small businesses while supporting broader financial inclusion and digital commerce across emerging markets.
