As reported by CIO East Africa, global processor of mobile money payments, Youtap has launched a QR code solution and smartphone apps for its mobile money services in Africa and Asia.

"The new solution gives any merchant or small business owner with a smartphone the potential to download Youtap's Merchant App, self-register, and start accepting mobile money payments.

"Likewise, any subscriber with a smartphone can download the Youtap Pay App and start making payments. Merchants who do not own a smartphone could be provided with a printed QR code to accept mobile money," reads a statement.

The company says its solution enables customer-initiated or merchant-initiated QR code payments for smartphones and smart point-of-sale devices. The solution conforms to the BharatQR industry standard developed by Bharat, Mastercard and Visa.

Youtap's apps can be white-labelled and branded with the logo and colours of the mobile money service. It says its QR code solution enables a full range of mobile money transactions, including cash-in and cash-out transactions, airtime top-ups, bill payments and in-store payments. QR codes can also be used to give back change when a customer uses cash.

According to the company, smartphone penetration across the emerging markets is increasing significantly.

Recently MTN published statistics on the growth of smartphones across its operating companies, including South Africa (15%), Nigeria (36%), Ghana (64%) and Côte d'Ivoire (100%).

According to the GSMA, an association that represents the interests of mobile operators worldwide, smartphone adoption is expected to reach 50% by the end of 2018. Youtap says in Asia, "where smartphone adoption is high," QR codes are already widely used for payments.