Talking Digital Payments in Last-Mile Environments at Treasurer's Roundtable 2024

At today's Treasurer's Roundtable conference in Washington D.C., Paycode Founder Ralph Pecker joined Aisling Quirke from Visa and Tia Simmons from Catholic Relief Services on stage to discuss Digital Payments in Last Mile Environments.

As the world moves towards a cashless economy, digital payments are becoming increasingly crucial, especially in last-mile environments where traditional banking infrastructure is limited or unreliable. Payment technologies and biometric digital identity systems are particularly valuable for organisations with international development or relief programs. 

The speakers talked about the landscape of last-mile environments and the unique needs of communities in these areas and discussed innovative payment technologies that are bridging the gap in financial inclusion as well as providing delivery methods for programming. 

'Digital Payments in Last Mile Environments' Speakers at Treasurer's Roundtable 2024

Aisling Quirke, Global Director Humanitarian & Development Partnerships, Visa Government Solutions

After 22 years working at the intersection of business and development, Aisling recently joined Visa to lead their humanitarian and development partnerships team, based out of Geneva, Switzerland. In this capacity, she works closely with global, regional and local teams across Visa, as well as with financial service providers, fintech companies and other strategic partners to leverage Visa rails, innovation and financial inclusion capabilities to reimagine the future of humanitarian and development aid. 

Previously, Aisling worked as a Portfolio Manager in the private sector engagement team at the Global Fund and as Head of Global Development Organisations at Absa, based out of Johannesburg. 

An Irish national, Aisling has an MBA from London Business School, an MEB from ESCP-EAP Paris, and a BA from Trinity College Dublin. In her spare time, she enjoys exploring the Alps with her Bernese Mountain dog, cold water immersion in Lake Geneva and enjoying new recipes and wines with friends. 

Tia Simmons, Treasury Analyst, Catholic Relief Services

Tia joined CRS in 2005 under the leadership of Steve Perry, Global Treasurer for CRS and has been supporting CRS’ Treasury Operations for her full 19-year tenure. In addition to processing payments, she has been instrumental in the implementation of CRS’ use of Kyriba Bank Account Reporting and BAM modules, served as a Subject Matter Expert during CRS’ ERP transition from JDE to Oracle, and for many years worked closely with and coordinated logistics for the Treasurers Roundtable. Tia also serves on a Cash Task Force whose main objectives are to remove operational barriers of CRS’ Cash Voucher Assistant Programs to meet agency cash assistance goals. 

Ralph Pecker, Founder & Executive Director, Paycode

Ralph Pecker was born and grew up in the rural parts of Zambia with parents who were deep rural farmers in a Southern Province of Zambia, a village called Sinazongwe. At the age of 20, Ralph went to South Africa to further his passion for IT as programmer working for the Goldfields. However very soon, Ralph’s entrepreneur spirit got the better of him and soon ventured into a number of start-ups mainly in Africa, although two of his ventures were in Boston USA and London.

Ralph as the founder of Paycode was asked to solve a last mile secure payment challenge in Zambia for the Agricultural Ministry. The result of delivering a very successful FAO project called FISP (Farmer Input Support Program), Paycode’s EDAPT (Electronic Data and Payment Technology) was born. Ralph is the Founder and Business Development Executive of Paycode based in London, UK. 

To find out more about Paycode's solutions for last mile aid distribution and donor organisation payments, please reach out to our team.