Africa's Financial Technology reports that Sicap, a Johannesburg-based mobile solutions provider, has announced the launch of cash-in, cash-out mobile money services on specially designed ATMs.
According to Financial Technology, the cash transactions are accounted for on the customers' mobile account, so no bank account or card is required. For operators, the mobile money ATM offer from Sicap constitutes a secure circuit for a variety of money-transfer scenarios.
The ATMs can be deployed as a simple prepaid credit channel to the 95 percent of African mobile users who use prepaid subscriptions and top up on a daily basis. This use case alone represents huge potential for operators to make savings, since it eliminates reload commissions to vendors. The service also can be set up as a means for the unbanked to pay utility bills. Even in South Africa, the most economically developed nation on the continent, only 40 percent of households are considered banked, according to the World Bank. In West and Central Africa, the percentage of banked households drops to 20 percent.
The Sicap cash-in to cash-out ATM solution is touted as being the next milestone in value-added services by enabling mobile-phone users to transfer airtime or send cash to any other mobile user in real-time.
