Equity Bank Rwanda has introduced a seamless payment platform where goods or services can be paid for at no charge, both to the buyer and the merchant.
The new platform dubbed "Pay With Equity (PWE), fasta fasta” will allow Equity customers to be able to pull money from their Equity bank accounts and push it to the merchants' account in Equity or any other local bank for free in real time.
While presiding over the launch on Friday, September 10, Equity Bank Rwanda Managing Director, Hannington Namara said "the aim of this new method is to facilitate our clients’ payments, in the country and globally.
"It gives us great pleasure to lead the rallying call by the Government of Rwanda to enable digital payments and make them accessible for all while eliminating the barrier of cost, and make every Rwandan financially included with our bank,” he said.
Namara added that the bank has partnered with telecommunication companies in order to facilitate anyone who uses this new payment method to be able to receive SMS notifications once the payment is made.
Olive Karigirwa, a trader in Nyarugenge District welcomed the initiative, saying that as a business owner it will benefit her as well as give a boost to the cashless payments that the government is promoting.
"With this new method, I will receive money from my clients making the payments easy, but also reduce the quarrels of asking a client to pay more to cater for the additional charges. However, I would like to ask the bank to help more people open accounts with them and sensitize them about the new product.”
Jean-Claude Gaga, the Commercial Director, Equity Bank Rwanda said the new system will go a long way in helping the effort to fight Covid-19, through discouraging the use of cash.
"In addition to that we want to facilitate our clients in making the platform convenient, reliable, free and available at all times, and we plan on increasing the number of our agents all over the country so we can make these services more possible,” he added.
Pay With Equity (PWE) Fasta Fasta has been built to work on both feature phones and smartphones and all a customer needs to do is dial *555# enter the merchants' code or Till Number and then amount and confirm the payment with a single string.
Equity Bank Rwanda began its operations in 2011 and is registered as a commercial bank by the National Bank of Rwanda.
The bank has its Head Office located in Kigali, with a footprint of 15 branches and is supported by 3,108 agents and1,300 merchants.
Equity Bank Rwanda received the Bank of the Year Rwanda 2020 and has unveiled several campaigns that digitalize payments and different transactions like promoting the usage of different Visa cards to pay for goods and services.
Customers who attended the ceremony were happy for the new service to believe that it will solve the problem of payment and will also protect them from the spread of Covid-19.
Equity Bank Rwanda launches an easy mobile payment solution dubbed Pay with Equity, Fasta Fasta at Serena Hotel Kigali on September 10, 2021.
Hannington Namara Managing Director of Equity Bank Rwanda during his remarks in the ceremony of launch Equity Fasta Fasta at Serena Hotel Kigali on September 10, 2021.
Mr. Jean-Claude Gaga Director Commercial in Equity Bank Rwanda explained how to use mobile service during his remarks at the ceremony of launch Equity Fasta Fasta at Serena Hotel Kigali on September 10, 2021.