By Pascal Oparada
WhatsApp has started testing digital payment system feature in India. The Facebook-owned chat app has been developing the system since early 2017.
It is giving limited users in the country the opportunity to give its in-built payment feature a try.
According to screenshots shared by some users, you would need to verify your phone number via SMS to be able to use the government-backed Unified Payment Interface (UPI) within the app. Users can then choose among the number of banks available.
Local media reported last year that the WhatsApp payment feature will debut in that country.
India has over 200 million Whatsapp users, making it the largest users in the world, according to TechCrunch.
If the test proves successful, it would give banks in Africa, especially in Nigeria a run for their money.
With excess bank charges from ATM, stamp duty and others, Nigerian users would have alternative in buying, selling and moving small amounts of cash around on the platform.
“Now, add banks to the list of entities which would be worried about WhatsApp. The telcos have hated the global messaging app; now the banks join the fray.
“The risk to banks is clear: if WhatsApp becomes very successful in payments, it may become a small bank of itself. In other words, if people decide to be leaving money in their wallets without moving them to their bank accounts, most banks would struggle [liquidity issues],” Ndubisi Ekekwe, a tech analayst said.
Already, WhatsApp has been giving telecommunication companies nightmare since it started voice and video calls. Some telecomm companies called for the restriction of the app in Nigeria.
It is reported that a lot of people now prefer WhatsApp calls to GSM calls because of the amount of drop calls by some telecom companies.