Nigeria’s Diamond Bank and other companies across Africa have won in various categories at the first Card and e-Payment Africa Awards (CePAA) in Johannesburg, South Africa.
The event was held in recognition of the innovative products and massive investments responsible for the rapid growth of e-payments across the continent.
Speaking at the ceremony Adeyinka Adeyemi, managing consultant at Intermac Consulting, stressed the need to recognise the huge investments in research and development of new technologies.
Adeyemi said: “There is just nobody noticing the huge investments going into research and development to bring about new technologies and new solutions.
“Sometimes these solutions succeed, sometimes they fail and when they fail what most stakeholders tend to do is go back to the drawing board, spending double and sometimes triple until they get to the market.”
Awards were given in 12 categories. Winners included Diamond Bank of Nigeria, and the Congo subsidiary of Access Bank.
The Nigerian bank won the Best Credit Card Product of the Year and the Best Co-branded Card Programme, while Access Bank Congo won the Best Debit Card Product of the Year award.
The Best Mobile Payment Product award went to Fundamo (PTY) South Africa, while
DrawCard, South Africa, won the Best Alternative Payments Programme award.
MasterCard won the Best Security and Authentication Programme award, South Africa’s Absa Bank won the Best Card Benefits Programme; while the Best Card Processor of the Year was won by HPS Worldwide, Morocco.
Transaction Payment System (TPS) Zimbabwe won Best POS Integrator of the Year, while the Industry Personality of the Year went to Jose G Matos, chief executive of Emis Angola.
