NEWS
Demand for secure online and
contactless payments soars in
South Africa due to Coronavirus
Orange Egypt
and Avaya
collaborate to
enable remote
learning during
Coronavirus
crisis
I
n response to the Egyptian government’s
decision to close schools and universities
for two weeks to prevent the spread of
Coronavirus, Orange Egypt and Avaya
have partnered to enable the country’s
educational institutions to implement
remote learning initiatives.
This follows the ongoing support by the two
organisations for Digital Transformation
and government-led innovation initiatives
in Egypt and will serve to mitigate the
impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the
education sector.
Avaya will offer educational institutions full-
feature access to its app, Avaya Spaces, for
free. Avaya Spaces, is a cloud meeting and
team collaboration solution that integrates
chat, voice, video, online meetings and
content sharing.
Orange Egypt is a leading provider of
integrated telecommunications services.
D
emand for secure online and
contactless payments is surging in
South Africa on the back of fears around
the spread of Coronavirus, with many
people reluctant to use cash or to touch
point of sale machines.
As the number of confirmed cases
increases daily, growing numbers of
retailers are scrambling to get online
payment systems in place to meet a
spike in demand from customers looking
for contactless payment options, said
Thomas Pays, the Chief Executive of
online payment platform Ozow.
He said: “We’ve seen a massive uptake
in activity on our platform as we
support our merchants to continue
to trade as normal as possible. We’re
12
INTELLIGENTCIO
currently processing around 35-40%
more transactions a day than we were
a couple of weeks ago, and we’re being
inundated by merchants wanting to go
live on our system as their customers
practise social distancing and want to
avoid touching cash and card machines.”
The greatest demand is coming
from pharmacy groups and retailers,
who are processing huge volumes of
ecommerce orders and deliveries from
their stores. Retailers are also using
Ozow for COD deliveries as it enables
contactless transacting, while ensuring
instant payment. Pays said the current
pandemic would accelerate the global
trend away from cash to digital
payments, as necessity drives
faster adoption.
Hisham Mahran, Vice President of Orange
Egypt for the corporate sector, said: “The
solution that we are jointly offering enables
educational institutions to maintain the
safety of students as their top priority,
while ensuring minimum disruption to
their education.”
Ahmed Fayed, Country Manager for Egypt
and Libya at Avaya, said: “As a socially
responsible organisation, Avaya is deeply
committed to providing technology for the
good of humanity.”
The app being jointly offered by Orange
Egypt and Avaya works on all Android and
iOS smart devices and can also be securely
accessed on personal computers and laptops
via Chrome or Firefox browsers.
www.intelligentcio.com