• Entertainment company MultiChoice says it is launching a digital payments processing platform called Moment.
• Moment is aimed at helping businesses across the 16 African countries that MultiChoice operates in to collect and make payments easier, quicker and in a more affordable manner.
• The platform will be entering a highly competitive fintech market on the continent.

South African entertainment media company MultiChoice is launching a digital payment platform across Africa taking on the likes of Flutterwave, Chipper Cash, OPay, and others.

According to an announcement on Monday, MultiChoice’s new fintech platform is called Moment – an integrated payment platform for Africa – which is being developed as a joint venture between itself, UK fintech integrator Rapyd and American venture capitalist firm General Catalyst.

“Moment offers expanded payment infrastructure for businesses across Africa to help them collect and make payments easier, quicker, and more affordable in any manner that their buyers or suppliers prefer,” explains MultiChoice in the announcement.

In the long-term, the platform will look to provide infrastructure for pan-African payments of the 44 million small businesses operating on the continent, says MultiChoice. Further lofty goals include digitising the continent’s retail transactions, of which 90 percent are cashed-based.

Moment’s planned future offerings include:

• “Payments across 40+ countries in Africa through 200+ locally preferred payment methods to collect, disburse and manage risk,
• Drive adoption of PayShap, TCIB, NQR, and other real-time payment methods across all markets,
• Global-Africa trade for importers and exporters with virtual accounts in 40+ currencies and local payments in 130+ countries,
• Payment tools, deep inventory to sell and financial services for micro-entrepreneurs and SMEs,
• Offering consumers payments, savings and rewards.”

It seems that more than a simple app, Moment will be a sort of payment processing network, where partner apps can sign up to use its infrastructure. Clearly, MultiChoice is banking on an African-wide distribution with the fintech offering.

Apart from South Africa, MultiChoice provides satellite TV and streaming to 15 African nations, including Nigeria, Kenya, and Ghana.

Fintech in the guise of payment platforms and digital money movers enjoy wide popularity across Africa, as companies see opportunities in the continent’s mostly unbanked, undigitised population. Six out of Africa’s seven unicorn startups – companies valued at around $1 billion after funding, are fintech firms that make payment processing easier.

“Moment gives MultiChoice another opportunity to make a meaningful contribution to the economic development of the African continent. It will play a key role in accelerating cash-to-digital payments for all consumers and businesses and making the continent more investment ready for global players, by connecting payments from Africa to the world,” enthused Calvo Mawela, MultiChoice Group CEO.

On top of this, MultiChoice will be using the fintech platform to boost the $3.5 billion in payments it processes annually, mostly from its subscribers.

“Investing in this venture is a logical progression for us,” explains Mawela, “as we already process payments every month from 22 million households across 50 countries in Africa. Moment fulfills our strategy to expand our ecosystem, by investing in adjacent businesses that provide scalable services, underpinned by technology.”

“The aim is to transform the African payments landscape by making digital payments more accessible and reliable for domestic, cross-border and global payments.”

MultiChoice will have to do something different with its fintech offering. Payment processing is a staple for companies like Chipper Cash, which already have a footprint in nine African nations, including South Africa, as well as the US and the UK.

Perhaps its “middle-man” like services will see it attract businesses to its fold, leveraging its big name and reputation.

MultiChoice did not indicate when Moment will be available for businesses to sign up, and their communication points to a platform that is still being developed. We will be on the look out for any future updates.