Wallyt Partners with NIC ASIA Bank to Launch WeChat Pay and UnionPay Mobile Payment in Nepal

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With the growing vaccination programme around the world increasing optimism that travel restrictions will ease later this year, it is heartening to report on a digital payment partnership in Nepal.

Nepal’s NIC ASIA Bank, is partnering with Nepal’s payment system operator FirstPay and Hong Kong based digital banking solution provider Wallyt to launch digital payment services to its merchants through WeChat Pay and UnionPay QR. The partnership enables merchants associated with the bank to reach more Chinese guests by giving the opportunity to use their domestic payment method.

According to Ministry of Culture, Tourism & Civil Aviation of Nepal, 169,543 Chinese travellers visited Nepal in 2019, an annual growth of 10.4%. Chinese travellers account for 14.2% of arrivals by nationality, the second largest source of tourists to Nepal. Numbers started going up in 2011 after Nepal announced free visas for Chinese nationals.

Attracting more Chinese travellers to Nepal

In anticipation of travel restrictions being lifted, retailers, hotels and travel services in Nepal are rapidly adopting and integrating digital payment applications and working hard to attract more future Chinese travellers.

"We aim to partner with technically agile global fintechs to leverage the untapped segment of international payment space in Nepal. Working together with Wallyt is the beginning of our journey in that direction,” says Roshan Kumar Neupane, CEO of NIC ASIA Bank.

“We are pleased to partner with Wallyt to bring world class technologies and payment channels to contribute in accelerated digital transformation in Nepalese Economy. We are incredibly excited about this journey and truly believe the best digitalisation of payment is yet to come.” adds Saurabh Rijal, CEO of FirstPay Technology. "Our aim is, working together with NIC ASIA Bank and First Pay, to serve more merchants in Nepal and help them to go cashless with digital payment capabilities.” Magic Tang, Vice President of Wallyt, adds.