Mobile money services have not been very successful in South Africa. The new products for micro-payments must address the larger ecosystem of banks and retailers.
CASH IS STILL KING IN AFRICA and most parts of the world. Yet, we cannot ignore the continued growth of mobile offerings on the African continent, from the uptake of smartphones, app usage, or digital and mobile payment solutions.
Today, it is possible to open a bank account from a smartphone or feature phone, and for small businesses to set up payment solutions directly from mobile devices. As technologies advance for micro-entrepreneurs, so too for micro-payments.
A new form of payment aimed at ‘paying it forward’, be it to a car guard, gardener, or a donation, has been introduced by South African startup Jini Guru, called uKheshe, which means ‘cash’ in Zulu.
The service allows a receiver to accept a tip or payment once a physical card with a QR code is scanned through the uKheshe app, by the sender.
The money accumulated can be cashed out at any Pick n Pay outlet in South Africa, making it an essential solution for those who don’t have bank accounts. The cards, attached to a lanyard, are of no cost and distributed freely; anyone can order a batch online, only incurring courier fees.
Guru first started working with Pick n Pay about five years ago, which resulted in the startup building and integrating its mobile wallet and rewards platform with the supermarket’s new smart banking capabilities back in 2017.
“The mobile money marketplace in South Africa has been riddled with several failures and false starts over the last 15 years,” says uKheshe founder Jason Penton.
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