Global digital payments leader Visa on Tuesday commemorated the one-year anniversary of Visa Innovation Studio in Nairobi as it seeks to hasten adoption of digital payments globally.

Visa says its approach to innovation is based on the belief that paying with Visa in the digital world should be as simple, secure and convenient as paying with Visa in the physical world.

Noting that $17 trillion of cash and cheques are still in use globally, Visa revealed that its innovation strategy provides a big chance to accelerate adoption of digital payments.

The digital payments firm has in the last few years profoundly evolved its platforms and workings with partners and clients to inspire an expansion of the commerce ecosystem.

Visa noted that the Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) Innovation Studio is aiding it drive its agenda of co-creating the next generation of commerce experiences and boost digital payments use.

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The company seeks to achieve this through:

• Accelerating digital issuance.

• Empowering small merchants.

• Development and deployment of new technologies, such as scan to pay.

It also helps Visa clients and partners in SSA region to cooperate, co-create and explore the future of commerce and impact of new technologies on the way we shop, pay and are paid.

Kenya hosting numerous start-ups, incubators and accelerators, the Innovation Studio is seeking to provide individuals, businesses and economies the access they need to thrive.

The studio has in the last one year:

• Engaged 1,520 different participants who visited the studio.

• Held 116 partner engagements with players from across the payments landscape, including traditional banking partners, merchants and fintechs from 24 countries.

• Held 19 co-creations, design sprints and discovery sessions, and 3 Pilot and Proof of Concepts (POCs).

The Innovation Studio also offers:

1. Innovation Experience – Engage with key trends, technologies and Visa capabilities driving innovation, virtually or in our physical spaces.

2. Discovery session – Go deep into key innovation themes and build a joint innovation roadmap.

3. Co-Creation – Digital product development sprint delivering a user-validated prototype, solution architecture and path to pilot.

4. Design Sprint – Specialist design expertise for rapid prototyping, workshops and UX validation.

5. User Experience (UX) Health Check – Psychometric tests on current UX Journeys to identify gaps and opportunities.