The Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) Business Council will engage regional financial services regulators towards harmonisation of policies to integrate digital payment scheme for small and medium enterprises, official said.

Sandra Uwera, the COMESA Chief Executive Officer stated this in a statement in Lusaka on Tuesday.

The need for harmonisation was meant to address challenges impacting industry competitiveness such as the lack of an affordable effective platform which accommodates digital cross-border payments.

In a statement, the organisation said it intends to roll out its digital financial inclusion platform which was currently being piloted in nine member countries.

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This was expected to catalyse the transition of small and medium enterprises from cash-dominant to cash to cash-lite economy where they have access to affordable interoperable, secure and real-time digital financial transactions.

Uwera said so far a series of regional meetings have been held with various stakeholders aimed at supporting the design, development and deployment of an integrated digital financial services infrastructure that was low-cost, interoperable, and fraud-resistant.

“Amongst the expected outcomes is increased access to, and update of digital financial services by previously underserved market segments, particularly those participating in cross-border trade,” she said.

According to her, this will spur the formalisation of their operations and also boost intra-regional trade, contributing to the regional integration agenda. (Xinhua/NAN)