Absa has been achieving a good level of success with its portable banking kit that allows social grant payments in remote areas and to the unbanked.
Paolo Zambonini, the bank`s general manager for strategy, innovation and new business, said at the BMI-TechKnowledge African Banking Forum in Midrand last week that the AllPay "bank in a box" benefited more than 1.9 million social grant beneficiaries.
More than R1 billion per month is disbursed through the system at 1 377 service points.
AllPay was founded as an Absa strategic business unit in 1997 and AllPay Consolidated Investment Holdings was established as a holding company in 2000.
Combined with this initiative, the bank`s Sekulula debit card allows social welfare beneficiaries to access funds at ATMs. The number of Sekulula accounts in Gauteng alone reached 280 737 in December last year.
The AllPay portable bank kit is an automated modular system that is smart card-based and also requires biometrics fingerprint verification.
The kit also consists of an embedded PC, a thermal printer, a barcode/document scanner, a PIN entry device and an external modem.
Zambonini says that not only has the project reduced the cost of reaching the mass market, but the bank sees other opportunities arising from the initiative. Since 73% of Sekulula beneficiaries are in the 20-39 age group, they are potential future customers of other banking products.
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