Overview

Payments is one of the GovStack building blocks (Building blocks are composable, interoperable software modules that can be used across a variety of use cases. They are standards-based, preferably open-source, and designed for scale).

In December after a year of research and work the Payments Working Group, who works on refining the Payments BB Specification in line with feedback from the community and country engagements, on enhancements, published a new version of the Payments BB Specification v3.0 . The update was authored by Vijay Mauree and Arnold Kibuuka.

Key Enhancements in the Payments Building Block v3.0

This update primarily expands the Payments Building block with guidance on the following areas:

·      In country Multicurrency payments

·      Government to Business (G2B) use case and mapping to APIs

·      Business to Government (B2G) use case and mapping to APIs

Multicurrency support is important as it allows for seamless transactions in different currencies, enhancing efficiency, transparency and access to financial services.  It supports countries that have multiple currencies due to a number of factors.  The Payments Working Group undertook a detailed analysis of how to support these.  As a result in the latest version of the specification, it has updated the description to include the multicurrency use case and updated key functionalities, data structures and APIs to provide support for Multicurrency.

Any government needs to be able to interact with business’s whether that be paying them for services or making disbursements.  To support this the specification has been updated to include use cases for Government to Business (G2B) payments along with mappings to service APIs and internal workflow examples.

A government also needs to be able to receive payments from business’s for taxes, fees and other amounts due. To support this the specification has been updated to include use cases for Business to Government (B2G) payments along with mappings to service APIs and internal workflow examples.

The release also updated a number of other elements based on feedback for full detail see the release notes.

After the release, what comes next?

The Payments Working Group is now looking at next steps towards its next specification release and would welcome more members to help them refine this journey and provide input. They are especially looking towards a review of the requirements in line with the recent GovSpecs 2.0 Architecture, how to undertake testing, and how more solutions can be mapped against the specifications.  Whether you are a country implementor, a solution provider, or a payments expert, your input to help steer these specifications would be welcome. Please reach out to us at community@govstack.global or sign up to join the Payments Working Group. More information on this link: https://govstack.global/govstack-technical-community/