Receiving payments as a freelancer in Africa can pose difficulties, as many global platforms are not inclined to serve African users. Additionally, the lack of payment interoperability between African countries exacerbates the problem.

With a combined experience of ten years as freelancers, Japheth Achimba and Benaiah Wepundi encountered this challenge severally. However, they saw an opportunity to create a solution that would not only benefit themselves but also other freelancers on the continent. The duo co-founded GetPayd Technologies and with it, the Payd platform.

In an interview with NODO News, Achimba says: “Payd allows freelancers to easily create a payment page without any coding.” He further explains that their platform offers an escrow API, enabling the money to be held until the completion of the work.

Achimba elaborates on the solution, which was launched towards the end of 2022, stating that it provides branding and some accounting features for freelancers. These features are often difficult to integrate outside formal work environments.

“With our payment link from Paid, users can receive payments from all payment platforms and keep track of their payment history,” Achimba emphasizes. He highlights that the platform enables users to receive payments across all 54 African countries, facilitating the sale of goods and services across borders.

Payd also caters to small businesses and e-commerce services, allowing users to showcase the products they are selling on their dedicated pages. The platform already has a waitlist of 2,500 signees, and the founder anticipates launching the application by mid-July 2023.

How Payd Utilizes Web3

The platform’s primary goal is to decentralize payment data, granting customers control over their information. A report from Cloudflare, states that data ownership is one of the key benefits of Web3 platforms.

“We utilize Web3 to enhance security. Our aim is to decentralize payment data to ensure security, privacy, and transparency for users,” Achimba explains.

Rather than centralizing all this information in one place, the platform strives to decentralize it, thus establishing a secure payment platform. The application ensures that the payment wallet is non-custodial, allowing users to own their data.

Additionally, the company plans to leverage AI technology to provide users with improved earnings analysis and projections, enabling it to offer comprehensive services to gig workers.