Absa will give customers early access to Samsung Pay

Samsung Galaxy S9 smartphone

After 18 months of false starts, it seems that Samsung is finally almost ready to launch its payment platform for smartphone in South Africa.

The Absa banking group said on Friday that customers will be able to test Samsung Pay before launching a commercial venture in the country.

Samsung first stated in 2016, at the launch of the Galaxy Note7, that it planned to launch Samsung Pay locally in the first quarter of 2017.

It was subsequently postponed to the third quarter of 2017 , in time for the launch of the Galaxy Note 8.

It now seems possible that Samsung has the intention to announce the local launch of the payment platform at the time of the unveiling of Note9 next month. The Korean consumer electronics giant is expected to announce the Note9 on August 9 during an event in New York.

Samsung Pay allows consumers to "snap and go" shopping at a point of sale using proximity communication technology as in the case of normal chip and magnetic pin terminals using technology known as "magnetic secure transmission".

Samsung launched Samsung Pay on its Korean domestic market in August 2015. A month later, it was introduced in the US. It has since been launched in different markets around the world.

"The big thing for us is that we have a chance to do things right," said Craige Fleischer, Samsung's vice president for the mobile sector in Africa. TechCentral in April 2017. "We made the strategic decision not to (launch) until we reached 60% of the total market."

He said that the process turned out to be more "convoluted" than expected. "We found various security issues and" hardware codings "in various environments from the point of view of the POS terminal that caused some problems," he said at the time. "Absa, in badociation with Samsung South Africa, will soon offer its customers early access to Samsung Pay before the service is launched commercially in South Africa," the bank said. "The partnership with Samsung Pay will give Absa customers even more choices on how they can make payments.

Early access will be open to all Absa customers in South Africa and will be Available on the Samsung Galaxy S9 / S9 +, Note8, S8, S8 +, S7, S7 Edge, A8 and soon on the A5 / A7 (2017 edition), he adds. "Selected customers will be invited to join the anticipated access program over the next few days. "- © 2018 NewsCentral Media