LONDON (The Southern African Times) – U.K based payments company Paydek is now turning to Ripple to expand its footprint in Latin America and Africa. Paydek, which especially caters to the gig economy workers remains focused on increasing its payments infrastructure.
With the COVID-19 pandemic, the gig economy has exploded considerably giving rise to the number of independent freelancers and contractors. This is especially true for regions with developing economies like Africa and Latin America.
However, receiving timely payments still remains a major challenge for freelancers. Experts believe that the traditional SWIFT ecosystem isn’t capable of catering to the demands of the gig economy. Paydek aims to change this scenario by using Ripple’s blockchain-based instant settlement solution RippleNet.
The U.K-based payments firm first leveraged RippleNet to cater to the needs of on-demand workers in Africa. Now, it is expanding its footprint in Latin America by partnering with Localpayment. Speaking of the development, Terry Hopkinson, Managing Director, Paydek said:
At Paydek, our goal is to deliver the most efficient and cost-effective payment products and methods to our customers. Our two new connections with Ripple in Africa and Latin America marks another milestone in building additional local payment rails and the payment technology infrastructure for our clients and partners.
The ability to provide fast payment delivery and a broad array of payment options is vital to our clients’ financial stability. With the addition of Localpayment’s expertise and support, Paydek is better positioned to offer an enhanced service to our clientele with local bank transfers into the Latin America market, where we are seeing significant growth for our customers.
Offering several cost-effective payment options
The good thing about Paydek is that it provides a variety of cost-effective payment options. Thus, customers can choose between debit cards, prepaid cards, bank account payments, IBAN accounts, wire transfers, and OTC transfers.
Paydek currently supports nine local currencies in Africa. While partnering with Localpayments in Latin America, Paydek will support currencies like MXN, ARS, CLP and UYU.
RippleNet is a global blockchain network happing businesses to instant process cross-border payments. Speaking of the development, Sendi Young, Managing Director of RippleNet Europe said:
Expanding RippleNet to better serve Paydek’s customers is a testament to the power of blockchain technology to significantly transform global payments. Through Paydek, Ripple is strengthening its presence in Africa and Latin America to drive innovation in digital remittances, in regions where faster payments are crucial to people’s livelihoods.
Recently, Goldman Sachs expert also noted that Ripple ghas the potential to transform the online payments industry. The expert noted that once Ripple settles its score with the SEC, ripple’s XRP will get larger acceptibility in online payment systems.
