For start-ups, micro, small and medium sized enterprises (MSMEs), proceeds from sales are in many cases immediately injected back in to the operations of the business. Many never have a luxury of having huge capital to keep them running for weeks, in to months like big players are able to.
As such, such businesses always need seamless payment collections platforms that ensure that for whatever sale made, the money is remitted immediately so that to keep the business in good health. While several payment aggregators and enablers promise this, it is a just a few that actually do this. One of the players that is enabling MSMEs effectively collect and make payments is PayTota.
Launched in 2020, Paytota is an all-in-one online payment gateway solution that allows individuals and businesses to make and accept payments from local and international buyers and sellers. To enable this, it has integrated with local and international payment facilitators such as Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) like MTN Mobile Money and Airtel Money, Banks, and Payment Cards Operators like Visa and Mastercard.
According to Erasmus Okurut, the founder and CEO of PayTota, his company is a ground-breaking financial technology company that empowers businesses by providing an inclusive platform that eases their payments in terms of acceptance and also disbursements.
“We are a total payment solution that empowers businesses not only in Uganda but in the entire continent and the global. We have developed and customized a platform that allows any business to be able to accept payments. To enroll with PayTota, you just go to our website and sign up an account. You will then be asked to submit some documents as per the know your customer/business guidelines. Once your documents are received and verified, your account will be activated, integration will be done and you will start accepting payments,” Okurut explained.
He added: “We have also developed hosted pages, commonly know as check outs. A business that wants to accept payments, reaches out to us, we design these pages for you, embed them on your website and you start accepting payments. We accept mobile money and card payments. We regard ourselves as payments aggregators and operators.”
Okurut revealed that they derive the mandate to manage payments from Bank of Uganda as PayTota is fully licensed.
“We are a regulated payment gateway by Bank of Uganda. We have a license as a payment operator for small funds and third-party systems. That license gives us permission to be able to process payments for our partners. That is why over 400 businesses in Uganda and across the World trust us to manage their payments. We have had over 5000 transactions and processed over USD 400,000.”
PayTota has featured on Day 29 of the annual 40 Days 40 FinTechs initiative Season 5.
Run under HiPipo’s Include Everyone program that also encompasses other initiatives such as FinTech Landscape Exhibition, Women in FinTech Hackathon, Summit & Incubator, and the Digital and Financial Inclusion Summit and Digital Impact Awards Africa; the #40Days40FinTechs platform aptly provides a setting for the various players and stakeholders involved in digital and financial technology to exhibit their products and services. It also gives players a platform to share their ideas on how the unserved and underserved by the present financial systems can be brought into the fold.
With over 150 participants in the last four years, #40Days40FinTechs continues to be the world’s premier showcase event for innovations that are enabling underserved populations to join the digital economy space. We know that this can only get better owing to the inspiration and collaboration of our partners; Level One Project, Mojaloop Foundation, INFITX, Cyberplc Academy, Ideation Corner, and Crosslake Technologies. Most importantly, the initiative owes its continued success to the generous support of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.