BAKU, Azerbaijan, February 10. The region of Central Asia and Azerbaijan are in the range of champions in terms of innovation development, Cristina Doros, Vice President, Regional Manager in Central Asia and Azerbaijan at Visa, told Trend in an exclusive interview.
Doros mentioned that the Visa team is actively working to ensure the continuous advancement of digital payments, fostering innovation and technology in both Central Asia and Azerbaijan.
"Digitalization development varies across countries in our region due to diverse factors. Nevertheless, our region is rightly acknowledged as a leader in innovation and development. Virtually every payment technology is present in Central Asia and Azerbaijan. A notable example is the introduction of the Request to Pay service in Kazakhstan using Visa Direct. This marked the world's first implementation of such a service, enabling users to request money transfers from other bank clients or split bills," she said.
"As an illustration, I could generate a request through the mobile application, prompting you with a message like, 'Christina is requesting a $10 transfer. Confirm: Yes or No?' Upon selecting 'Yes, transfer,' a Visa Direct-based transaction is initiated, transferring the money from your account to mine," Doros added.
According to her perspective, this represents a fascinating application of technology, particularly in the context of individual transfers, such as dividing shared expenses among friends. The speaker also highlights that the company provides solutions tailored for private entrepreneurs.
"Taking a larger view of this technology, its applicability can extend to the customer-to-business (C2B) model. This allows for the unrestricted development of micro- and nano-companies. This includes people who sell material, blog, offer things on social media, or run other small businesses. Entrepreneurs with a Visa Business card can now take digital payments, expanding the existing acceptance channels via POS terminals. The Visa Business card serves as a payment acceptance point without the use of any additional equipment. This provides tremendous prospects for the numerous individuals currently creating their small enterprises, allowing them to do so digitally," added the Visa Vice President.