MasterCard and Simplus`s mobile commerce project turned over R1.6 billion last year, but the companies say this is just the beginning.
Essentially, the platform allows for secure payment transactions to be conducted through a mobile phone, which is particularly useful for the millions of unbanked in the country.
Gary Byrne, MasterCard Southern Africa vice-president for payment solutions, says the focus has been on prepaid cellphone accounts, where consumers top up their accounts directly from their handsets, obviating the need to buy vouchers or visit ATMs.
Simplus MD Gavin Krugel says the project has proved to be a success in townships, with the platform being used by GSM payphone owners - people who set up on street corners and sell units to others wanting to make phone calls.
Unbanked people make their payment through prepaid credit cards issued by MasterCard.
When the request is sent from the handset to SimPlus, the company in turn sends an instruction to the airtime provider to top up the airtime.
The companies have also taken the project into the corporate world through rePower, which allows both individuals and companies to top up cellphone accounts and access a detailed 12-month history.
"If you can buy and sell airtime as a commodity like that, why not something else?" says Byrne.
"The engine is designed to sell any item using a cellphone as a channel with the Web as a support channel," says Krugel. "We could use it for paying utilities, micropayments, person-to-person transfers."
The companies say that ultimately people will use the platform for buying items such as tickets and for making account payments.
Krugel says a large part of the strategy for this year is to take what was accomplished last year and grow the project in terms of applications and geography. Byrne says Africa is a promising market, and the companies are looking seriously at taking the model into the rest of the continent.
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