Netcetera and Covalent partner to expand online payments in MENA

By Leandra Monteiro

Swiss software expert Netcetera is now collaborating with Pakistani payments powerhouse Covalent in order to provide a smooth and secure online payment experience for customers. The Software As A Service model offered jointly by Netcetera & Covalent ensures that any bank, electronic money institution or non-banking financial institution can offer its customer the convenience of safely and securely authenticating themselves for e-commerce transactions, opening up a myriad of new possibilities for customers and retailers in the region.

Pakistan is a large, mostly untapped market for digital payments with 61 million potential customers and a thriving start-up scene. Ecommerce transactions grew significantly in the last 18-24 hours driven largely by purchase behaviour changes due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Covalent is one of the burgeoning new players on the Middle East & Africa FinTech scene, offering a cloud-based payments platform for banks, electronic money institutions and non-banking financial institutions tailored to their needs. When they made the acquaintance of Netcetera through regional contacts, their interests converged, and sparks flew.

Netcetera’s 3DS solutions make it possible for Covalent’s platform to offer two-factor authentication, verifying users’ identities. This not only ensures easy online payment whether using a computer, tablet or phone, it also prevents card fraud. Their attention to detail, EMVCo certification and many years of experience implementing 3DS solutions for global customers all contributed to Covalent’s choice. Covalent’s blue-chip contacts on the ground and valuable local knowledge of the payments ecosystem and card management systems were also a boon for Netcetera, making them the perfect fit.

“We heard about their reputation for excellence and felt they were just the right people to work with”, said Haris Waheed, Head of Business & Strategy at Covalent. “We look forward to our collaboration and providing the most innovative payment services in the region,” said Ramy Fouda, Director of Sales and Business Development at Netcetera. “We are always on the lookout for promising partnerships for our services and are delighted to now be able offer secure online payments and expand our reach in Pakistan with Covalent.”