NextPay partners with Ayannah for fund disbursements to unbanked recipients

Homegrown financial technology startup NextPay has partnered with local online-to-offline (O2O) digital payments provider Ayannah to allow its customers to disburse funds to unbanked recipients.

In a statement on Tuesday, NextPay said its partnership with Ayannah will enable small businesses to send money to their employees, suppliers, and customers through about 10,000 partner remittance centers nationwide.

The fintech firm said users may send money to a single individual or do batch disbursements to several recipients.

“We understand that a majority of our population are still unbanked with only three out of 10 Filipinos owning a bank account. Even with the pervasiveness of eWallets, a huge part of the population still does not have access to basic financial services. NextPay aims to serve them by allowing unbanked recipients to receive funds through the nearest remittance centers in their area,” said NextPay CEO and co-founder Don Pansacola.

The fintech company said senders may use its platform to disburse funds to their recipients.

It explained that money sender will simply have to click on the “disbursements” tile on the NextPay dashboard and input the personal details of the intended recipients.

After which, senders can choose a “remittance center” as their receiving option and confirm the transaction.

NextPay said recipients will then receive a text message and an email containing the transaction reference number.

Recipient may then claim the funds transferred through the about 10,000 branches of remittance centers nationwide.

Remittance center partners include LBC, Tambunting, Raquel Pawnshop, Panalo Express, RD Pawnshop, ACM-VIP, and Sendah Direct Agents.

Disbursement through remittance centers costs as low as P5 per transaction, NextPay said.

“This online-to-offline service enables us to strengthen our shared goal of providing basic financial services to more Filipinos especially the unbanked. By partnering with NextPay, we are also simplifying the process of disbursements for growing businesses and even individuals,” Ayannah founder Mikko Perez said.

Launched amid the pandemic in 2020, NextPay said it empowers growing companies, entrepreneurs, and freelancers with a spectrum of digital financial services that were previously unavailable to them because of the steep requirements and high fees that are typically aimed at larger, more developed companies that can afford such services.

“We aim to be at the forefront of innovation for digital banking solutions in the Philippines in order to enable more small businesses to make big banking transactions with ease and convenience at very minimal costs. These new solutions are aimed at providing businesses with flexible options to transact and help them focus more on growing their businesses,” Pansacola said.—LDF, GMA News