PayFast is on a mission to introduce and facilitate a new era of digital payments in Pakistan.

The company now let’s businesses accept Visa & Mastercard card payments in addition to UnionPay International and PayPak cards and other payment methods such as bank accounts and mobile wallets.

Pakistan has a population of 220 million people, with an e-commerce market valued at approximately $4 billion. Yet, there continues to remain a heavy reliance on cash as the primary form of payments, with up to 70% of the population being unbanked. This is largely due to a lack of digital infrastructure, awareness and trust.

The downside of this is that local businesses face obstacles to their growth and are unable to maximise their revenue potential whilst customers are forced to inevitably make payments in cash; PayFast aims to address these problems.

PayFast is a State Bank regulated payment gateway that was founded on the belief that businesses of all shapes and sizes will benefit greatly from a robust digital platform catered to each of their payment needs.

It offers one of the most diverse and fully integrated suite of digital payment solutions:

• PayFast Checkout: Built for e-commerce businesses

• PayFast Payment Links: built for freelancers and businesses without websites. It allows businesses to create unique payment links that can be sent through email, whatsapp, or SMS.

• PayFast Billing: a digital invoicing solution that allows businesses and organizations to send and receive bill payments instantly and seamlessly in bulk. PayFast’s strategic partnership with 1Link allows businesses’ customers to pay by selecting PayFast or 1Bill on any bank’s internet banking portal, mobile app, ATM or alternatively, by visiting a designated over-the-counter location. Customers also have the ability to pay bills using PayFast checkout.

• Mobile Payments: As UnionPay’s third party service provider, PayFast enables cashless and secure QR and Tap & Pay payments for customers with mobile payment partner banks.

Such a broad range of products and instruments ensure that a business can select the solution that best suits their needs and their customers making online transactions are not prone to any hindrances, and can choose how they want to pay. This gives Pakistani companies and their clients more freedom and flexibility, promoting financial inclusion nationwide.

To address safety concerns associated with online payments, PayFast has also taken extra measures to maximise the security of all transactions that are processed. As a fully licensed and regulated entity that is also PCI-DSS certified, it adheres to a strict set of industry guidelines that keep transactions protected and secure.

All payments made through PayFast are encrypted, while it also has a round-the-clock transaction monitoring team and an internal Fraud and Risk Management system that screens transactions.

PayFast’s ethos is that Pakistani businesses should have all the tools required to grow and succeed in the digital era and that Pakistan deserves to earn a place on the global fintech landscape.

With the introduction of Visa and Mastercard acceptance, the company aims to enable digitisation for every type of business, making digital payments the norm in Pakistan.

This content is a paid advertisement by PayFast and is not associated with or necessarily reflective of the views of Dawn.com or its editorial staff.