Nasdag-listed smart card solutions provider Net 1 aims to expand its business globally, starting on the African continent, by offering biometrically accessed bank accounts that work in an offline environment.
The company is deploying its universal electronic payment system (UEPS) technology into Nigeria, Namibia and Botswana, and has smaller systems operational in Malawi, Ghana, Rwanda, Burundi and Mozambique. Net 1 is also in advanced negotiations with a number of other large countries in Africa, it says.
The Nigerian venture, known as SmartSwitch Nigeria, will be installed and implemented towards the end of the year and will be targeting the unbanked population of Nigeria, which exceeds at least 90% of the 140 million Nigerian citizens.
SmartSwitch Namibia was launched in February this year and the Namibian postal service (Nampost) has implemented the technology in all of its branches and has registered and issued smart cards to over 80 000 of its customers.
SmartSwitch Botswana will be activated in October or November of this year and will result in Botswana becoming the first country to use the company`s Cash Advance product. The product will provide an issuer with the facility to offer small monthly cash advances to UEPS cardholders at point-of-sale terminals installed at participating merchants, bank branches and offices of micro-financiers.
No fraud, ever
The company, established in 1989, says it has not encountered any incidences of fraud due to its security features, patented protocols, biometric fingerprint authentication and unique multiple audit trail. Each smart card has a unique serial number, which in the event of being hot-listed cannot be used again in the system.
"In addition, the Net 1 system allows for the storage of all 10 fingerprint templates on the card which ensures that a cardholder can always be verified successfully", says senior VP of marketing and sales, Brenda Stewart.
Offline payments
As the transactions between the cardholders and the merchants are processed in an offline environment, the merchants are only required to settle to the system host once a day, which reduces communication costs.
Depending on the country involved, the merchant transaction fee ranges between 0.5% and 0.75% on settlement of the daily transaction value.
Settlement can be done through GPRS, landline or any other available communications. Participating merchants can generate additional income by offering cardholders basic banking services, such as money transfers and bill payments through their point of sale terminals.
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