Entering emerging markets like South Africa presents unique complexities for global businesses. Successfully managing regulatory frameworks, tax obligations and local payment operations is essential for efficient market entry and customer adoption.
Previously, global businesses faced two challenging options for collecting revenue: incurring high costs to process payments internationally through card networks, or undertaking resource-intensive local incorporation to access local payment methods. The high cost of international payment processing is compounded by higher failure rates as these methods are more prone to chargebacks and disputes.
Novo42 enables global merchants to access best-in-class local payment capabilities without needing to be fully locally incorporated in South Africa. To ensure significant customer adoption and high success rates are achieved, we have partnered with best-in-class local payment provider, Precium. Through this partnership, we can combine our localisation expertise with Precium's proven payment solutions to enable merchants to expand confidently.
"Our mission centres on unlocking Africa's potential by removing barriers for global businesses. Precium's payment platform provides the essential infrastructure businesses need to scale efficiently in South Africa. Together, we're helping merchants connect seamlessly with local consumers and achieve sustainable growth,” says Erica Bester, Managing Director.
Local innovation for payment success
Precium's payment platform is specifically designed for enterprises operating in Africa. With deep expertise in regional infrastructure and payment behaviours, Precium delivers locally compliant solutions through:
- Local payment methods
The platform processes both recurring and single transactions across multiple payment types, including card payments, EFT debit orders, DebiCheck and Capitec Pay. This comprehensive approach helps merchants reach more South African consumers, particularly those who want to use familiar payment methods.
- Simplified, but optimised payment flows
With a single integration, Precium provides access to optimisation features like network tokenization and smart routing. These capabilities are all part of a single, modular platform, so that merchants can consume the capabilities they need within their existing payment architecture and business systems.
- Regulatory excellence
Precium is PCI DSS Level 1 compliant, adhering to the highest card payment security and data protection standards globally. In addition, Precium is sponsored by the Payment Association of South Africa as a Third Party Payments Provider and Systems Operator, and is a licensed Payment Facilitator with the major Card Schemes. By advising and managing compliance matters on behalf of merchants, Precium ensures optimal success rates, customer experience, and compliance.
- Always-on, proactive support
Precium offers a robust monitoring and alerting system, with a dedicated Support and Product Operations team that monitors platform and processing health and proactively notifies our clients and Customer Success teams of any issues.
Read more about what to expect when partnering with Precium here.
This collaboration marks a significant step in supporting global SaaS businesses, digital service providers and payment orchestrators to succeed in Africa. Merchants can accelerate their market entry, reduce costs and maximise their reach in one of Africa's most dynamic economies.
About Precium
Precium is the first African payment platform purpose-built for enterprise. The company helps businesses optimise payment performance, automate financial operations, and craft extraordinary customer experiences through its modular payment platform.
