Nepal Clearing House Ltd. (NCHL) and Alipay have reached a remarkable collaboration to launch the Alipay Plus payment service in Nepal. The payment company announced the launch of cross-border payment between NEPALPAY QR & Alipay+ at Singapore Fintech Fest 2024. Now, merchants in Nepal using NEPALPAY QR and Smart QR can receive payment via Alipay+ users.
The partnership enables merchants to receive payment via Alipay+ subscribers. This benefits businesses in Nepal to get payment for goods and services from Alipay+ users via a QR scan.
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Alipay Plus in Nepal
NCHL’s initiative brought the cross-border payment platform Alipay+ with NEPALPAY QR. This marks the latest milestone payment launch for Indian payment service providers after the Nepal-India payment service launch. However, there’s one thing to keep note of about the Alipay+ platform.
While Alipay is a digital wallet or mobile banking app, Alipay+ is a payment system that connects merchants with customers via electronic payment platforms.
So in Nepal, travellers including the Chinese citizens can pay online while Nepali merchants can receive Alipay+ payment on ConnectIPS via NEPALPAY QR.
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Who can pay via Alipay+ in Nepal?
According to NCHL, users of the following payment platforms can pay in Nepal using Alipay+:
- Alipay (Chinese mainland)
- AlipayHK (Hong Kong SAR)
- Tinaba (Italy)
- MPay (Macao SAR)
- Touch ‘n Go eWallet and MyPB by Public Bank Berhad (Malaysia)
- Hipay (Mongolia)
- GCash (the Philippines)
- Changi Pay and OCBC Digital (Singapore)
- Naver Pay and Toss Pay (South Korea)
- TrueMoney (Thailand)
Benefits of Alipay+
NCHL’s cooperation with Alipay+ makes it one of the global 5 collaborators for electronic payment. Here are its top benefits:
- Convenience: Alipay+ provides Nepali merchants the convenience of receiving payment directly from Alipay+ users
- Fast and seamless digital payment: It helps the digital economy with fast and seamless online payment
- Secure and simple: It’s a secure and simple payment platform that connects users with ConnectIPS’s NEPALPAY QR for payment
- Global coverage: Alipay+ has global coverage so its interoperable network brings various payment solutions to the businesses
- Offers, discounts: Merchants can offer customers discounts, offers, and schemes on payment through Alipay+
- Uniform payment: Alipay+ uses the same QR code for mobile payment which streamlines the payment process
Availability
Everest Bank has become the first bank to announce work on Alipay+ payment in Nepal. The bank has partnered with NCHL to enable travelers to pay via QR scan at NEPALPAY QR merchants in Nepal using their local mobile payment gateway. Recently, Citizens Bank and Rastriya Banijya Bank (RBB) have also signed up for this initiative. Now, NEPALPAY QR and Smart QR-using merchants can receive payment from users who use digital wallets or mobile banking apps that are part of the Alipay+ network.
Essentially, travelers to Nepal from China, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Indonesia, South Korea, The Philippines, Singapore, Sweden, Italy, etc. are now eligible to pay in Nepal at NEPALPAY QR merchants using Alipay Plus-powered payment apps.
More banks and financial institutions (BFIs) will now partner with NCHL to make this cross-border payment in the coming days.
Conclusion
NCHL’s collaboration with Alipay for the Alipay+ payment service further diversifies Nepal’s digital payment landscape. Especially, Chinese users who visit Nepal for tourism and businesses can benefit from it while Nepalese can also do the same across the border.
At a time when we are hearing news of PayPal launching in Nepal, the advent of Alipay+ adds more fruits for the merchants. Nepal’s fintech industry is gathering more milestones and let’s hope Alipay+ adds more to the digital economy for the businesses and the national economy.
Alipay enjoys a global coverage spanning 66 markets with 90 million merchants.
Are you excited about Nepal’s growing cross-border payment solutions? Do you think they will prove exceptional in improving the country’s digital economy? Do share your opinion in the comment section below.
