A new study from Juniper Research has found that the transaction value of B2B (business to business) domestic payments across payment methods will exceed $54 trillion in 2023, up from $49 trillion in 2021. The research, titled B2B Payments: Key Opportunities, Vendor Strategies & Market Forecasts 2021-2026, predicts a growth of 10%; reflecting a slow recovery in business activity following the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.It identified that while many businesses are now operating at pre-pandemic levels, the longer-term economic consequences of the pandemic are still restricting value growth. As such, leveraging payments automation to reduce manual work and boosting small business cashflow will be critical to recovery.
Cash and Cheque payments to fall
The research also found that the need to automate B2B payments at scale is leading to a fundamental shift in the way payments are made.
It then forecasts that the volume of B2B domestic cheque payments will fall by 30% globally between 2021 and 2023, with cash payments falling by 11% over the same period.
The need to automate payments means a shift towards more easily automated payment types, such as card and instant payments.
Research author Nick Maynard explained: “The pandemic has accelerated the transition away from traditional payment types, with growth focused on instant payments and card payments. This transition will be important for automation, but will take some time, given the established nature of these processes.”
Instant Pay reigns
The research predicts that by 2023, global instant payment transaction volumes in the B2B domestic channel will grow by 56%; the fastest of any single payment method.
It identified the launch of instant payment schemes that can carry additional remittance data as having significant potential for simplifying the complex B2B payments ecosystem.
However, the report acknowledged the uneven state of instant payments scheme roll-outs as a critical limiting factor, with Europe moving much faster than North America and other parts of the world.
Ghana
Indeed, in Ghana, the Ghana Interbank Payments and Settlements Systems (GhIPSS) has introduced a number of instant pay platforms, the most recent one being the GHQR, which allows merchants to payments to other merchants instantly by scanning the QR Code of the recipient organization.
Per GhIPSS’ 2020 annual report, Covid-19 even caused a huge upsurge in real time electronic payments, comprising of mobile money interoperability (MMI), GHQR Code, Proxy Pay and GhIPSS Instant Pay (GIP), which together closed the year with the strongest performance, compared to their performance the previous year.
In all they recorded a total of 50.7 million transactions with a corresponding value of GHC15 billion, compared to just 11.3 million transactions and a relative value of GHC2.7 billion 2019.
Clearly, there is a huge growth in the use of instant pay methods in Ghana, and this year’s GhIPSS annual report is expected to even reflected higher figures than were recorded in 2020.
