E-commerce in Africa is set to receive a boost as United Bank for Africa (UBA) Plc. has introduced an online payment and collection platform tagged U-bills.

U-bills, is a collection and bill payment platform, which allows sellers to collect payments online or on their mobile devices like tablets and smart phones.

It also provides a one-stop platform for customers to make payments for goods and services on their mobile phones, tablets or personal computers as long as they have an internet connection on the devices.

“The uniqueness of the U-Bills platform is that it is a single payment gateway where all forms of payments to different merchants can be made. It is not a single-merchant platform. All merchants can register on U-Bills to receive payments for goods and services.

Also, anyone can go online and register to make payments for goods and services bought, Yinka Adedeji,” Divisional Head e-banking explained.

“With U-bills, customers have the flexibility to make online payments anytime of the day or night or week to sellers for goods bought or services rendered. This means, it no longer matters where you are in the world. So far as you are an African and are from any of the Countries where UBA is, you can now pay your bills, top up phones of your loved ones and still pay for services without moving an inch,” he added.

Customers registered on U-bills can recharge their mobile phones, pay their cable TV bills quickly and easily and pay their utility bills in any of the 19 countries in Africa where UBA has operations.

Already, some top merchants, which have registered on U-bills to receive payments include leading telecom operators like; MTN (top-up and post-paid), Etisalat, Glo, and Airtel.

Customers of these telecom operators registered on U-bills, can buy air-time or top-up on the platform.

Other service providers currently registered on the U-bills platform include; Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria (FRCN), the Abuja Geographic Information Systems, Bells University of Technology Limited among others.

It accepts VISA and MasterCard as well as the local card schemes and other payment platforms in the different countries where UBA has its operations.

Merchants must be UBA account holders to register to use U-bills which would be activated on a merchant’s platform within 72 hours of registration.

U-bills has no monthly or annual charges. All charges are based on transactions and country specific.