In a move towards enhancing Namibia’s financial infrastructure, the NPCI International Payments Limited (NIPL), the international arm of the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), has joined hands with the Bank of Namibia to support the development of an instant payment system akin to India’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI).
The development was announced in a recent press release, which states the objective behind the collaboration is to improve “accessibility, affordability, connectivity with both domestic and international payment networks, and interoperability.” It also observed that the move is expected to “enhance digital financial services and bolster real-time Person-to-Person (P2P) and Merchant payment transactions (P2M) in the African nation.”
“Our objective is to enhance accessibility and affordability for underserved populations, achieve full interoperability of payment instruments by 2025, modernize the financial sector, and ensure a secure and efficient National Payment System. This endeavour, aligned with the Bank’s Strategic Plan and NPS Vision and Strategy 2025, deliberately employs a central bank-led approach to minimize infrastructure costs for financial institutions….”, the press release quoted Bank of Namibia Governor Mr. Johannes Gawaxab as saying.
“We are excited about this collaboration, which will enable Namibian citizens to transact instantly leveraging technology and experiences from India’s UPI. By enabling this technology, the country will gain sovereignty in the digital payments landscape and stand to benefit from enhanced payment interoperability and improved financial access for underserved populations.” Ritesh Shukla, CEO of NPCI International, said.
Prior to this, NIPL has partnered with banks and merchants in several countries including the United Arab Emirates, Singapore, Nepal and Bhutan to set up UPI-powered transactions at select merchant locations, largely to the benefit of Indians travelling abroad. The current deal also comes in the backdrop of NIPL’s agreement with Google earlier this year to expand UPI at a global scale.
As goals for the tie-up, the two entities observed that they would be working on enabling travellers to make UPI payments abroad via Google Pay, using the UPI infrastructure to ease cross-border remittances as well as card deals with NPCI to increase UPI’s international presence.
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