Ébène, July 08, 2025: Leading African payment gateway Peach Payments has integrated MauCAS QR on ecommerce checkout for its online merchants, powered by a collaboration with blink by Emtel. This means that online merchants using the Peach Payments gateway can now accept MauCAS payments from their consumers.
Launched in August 2019, MauCAS (the Mauritius Central Automated Switch) is a digital platform operated by the Bank of Mauritius. It facilitates instant payments between different banks and payment service providers (PSPs). Available 24/7, it connects all licensed PSPs and banks for clearing and settlement of transactions.
“By enabling MauCAS on our platform, we ensure that merchants who use our payment gateway for ecommerce checkouts can offer one more channel to their customers to make fast and secure online payments. Following our integration of key payment apps in Mauritius through partnerships with relevant telecom operators and banks alike, this collaboration with MauCAS via blink is the next logical step for Peach Payments to broaden our offerings to online merchants,” says Uways Kureeman, the Country Head and Director of Peach Payments Mauritius.
He explains that the integration with MauCAS means that merchants using the Peach Payments gateway can now also use QR codes to receive payments from customers.
Switched on: How MauCAS powers the digital payments push
MauCAS has seen an exponential increase in annual transaction volumes and values since its first full year of operations in 2020. Notably there was a significant surge in activity attributed to increased digital payments adoption between 2022 and 2023. MauCAS has an average transaction size of around US$80.
Uways emphasises: “Since its launch in 2019, MauCAS is synonymous with digital payments on the island, offering a low cost, secure and interoperable payments platform that is designed to accelerate efforts to transform Mauritius into a digital economy. At Peach Payments, we are constantly striving to improve digital payment adoption in Mauritius, in the safest and easiest manner possible. This partnership with MauCAS via blink can be expected to give a significant thrust to our efforts.”
For his part, Atul Bhatia, Chief FinTech Officer at Emtel, notes, “We partnered with Peach Payments in April 2023 to add our payments app, blink by Emtel, to the avenues available for e-commerce checkout. At blink, we believe that payment gateways such as Peach Payments play an important role in powering digital transformation in Mauritius’ payments system, by supporting merchants and consumers alike to diversify the payment tools at their disposal. Now, our partnership is yielding even more benefits for our target audience as Peach Payments is using blink rails to enable MauCAS QR codes as yet another payment avenue for online merchants to receive payments from consumers.”
Catering for new consumer demands, yielding big benefits to businesses
Significantly, figures released at the start of the year by banking major MCB showed that 2024 witnessed an overall increase of 13% in digital transactions. Other important takeaways from the report were that contactless payments rose by 19% while payments through QR codes also grew exponentially, by 100% over the past year. Thus, Mauritian customers are increasingly turning to online payment methods, and businesses that cater for such rising needs can expect greater traction with consumers.
Uways adds that businesses that offer MauCAS as a payment method in their online stores through Peach Payments benefit from quick settlements and real-time notifications, while steering clear of cash handling risks.
“This strategic partnership between MauCAS and Peach Payments empowers customers to make online payments safely and securely at any merchant that accepts MauCAS, via Peach Payments. For businesses, having MauCAS added to the existing payment solutions – be it payment apps, credit or debit cards – available through Peach Payments gives them an exciting new avenue to broaden their means of payment acceptance,” he concludes.
Merchants can activate MauCAS QR in their Peach Payments dashboard or reach out to sales@peachpayments.com for support.
Looking ahead, plans are underway at Peach Payments to enable MauCAS over other payment apps as well. Stay tuned for more updates!
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About Peach Payments:
Peach Payments is a fast-growing African payment solution provider (PSP) that makes offline and online payments easier and more accessible across Kenya, Mauritius and South Africa. The company works with growing enterprises to provide a complete toolkit to accept, manage and disburse payments through point-of-sale, web and mobile. Peach Payments’ merchant partners include your favourite food delivery services, whether you’re ordering in or using a meal kit, travel services that can help you book your next getaway adventure and even your home cleaning service. For these partners and their customers, Peach Payments aims to provide delightful experiences that make it as easy as possible to facilitate payments. Peach Payments recently agreed to acquire West-African payment platform PayDunya, which operates in six Francophone countries: Senegal, Côte d’Ivoire, Benin, Burkina Faso, Togo, and Mali.
About MauCAS:
The Mauritius Central Automated Switch (MauCAS) is a novel state-of-the art digital hub fully owned and operated by the Bank of Mauritius for routing payments among operators on a 24×7 basis.
MauCAS, which is built on open standards, enables banks and non-bank operators to provide transformative payment and value added services through cards, mobile phones and other innovative channels.
As the central payment switch, MauCAS simplifies current retail payments by routing transactions made through cards and mobile phones for settlement at the Bank of Mauritius. This will enhance efficiency in the system while maintaining the interoperability of different channels of payments.
