Visa has introduced new capabilities across its Visa Accept and Visa Direct platforms aimed at enabling small businesses in emerging markets to accept and send digital payments using only a smartphone, eliminating the need for additional payment hardware.

Announcing the initiative on June 30, 2026, the global payments technology company said the new solutions are designed to help street vendors, micro-sellers and growing online merchants manage transactions more efficiently while expanding access to digital financial services.

"Every tap, scan and swipe is now a defining moment in the customer relationship, and small businesses can't afford for payments to get in the way," said Shahebaz Khan, Senior Vice President and Head of Commercial and Money Movement Solutions for Central and Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa at Visa.

"We see a future where a single smartphone is all a seller needs to accept any way customers want to pay, gain powerful insights and confidently run their business, so they can spend less time on payment friction and more time creating the experiences that keep customers coming back."

Visa said its Visa Accept solution transforms a smartphone into a payment terminal, allowing eligible sellers to receive card payments directly into their Visa debit or prepaid accounts through their banking applications.

Customers can make payments by tapping their cards or using payment links, while merchants receive funds in near real-time without requiring a separate point-of-sale device.

According to Visa's Global SMB Macro Trends Report, 99 per cent of surveyed small and medium-sized businesses already use at least one digital finance tool, while 85 per cent say such tools have positively impacted their operations.

The company disclosed that Visa Accept is now available in more than 25 countries and will soon launch in Ghana through partnerships with Access Bank, OmniBSIC Bank and Universal Merchant Bank (UMB).

Visa expects the solution to reach millions of merchants globally by 2027. In addition, the company announced enhancements to Visa Direct, enabling small businesses to use their smartphones to make near real-time payments to employees, contractors and suppliers, process customer refunds and send cross-border transfers to eligible cards, bank accounts and digital wallets.

Visa said the innovations form part of its broader strategy to make digital payments more accessible for small businesses, particularly in emerging markets where smartphone adoption continues to grow among underserved populations.

The company noted that with an estimated 530 million of the world's 1.3 billion unbanked adults already using smartphones, expanding mobile-based payment solutions presents a significant opportunity to promote financial inclusion and support business growth.