JOHANNESBURG, South Africa -- The number of debit cards used in South Africa is growing sharply as banks switch their low-income customers from simple ATM cards to cards with a debit function, such as Visa's Electron and Mastercard's Maestro.
According to a Business Day report, Visa had issued 6.2 million cards in South Africa at the end of December, of which more than 4 million were debit cards. Most were issued within the past two years, Visa reported. It is issuing more than 200,000 new cards a month, through its seven member banks in South Africa.
The banks are also rolling out point-of-sale terminals, according to the Business Day report. Chris Winter, Visa's southern African general manager, said there are now about 30,000 terminals in South Africa, with plans to reach 70,000 by the end of September.
Winter said most of Visa's growth in debit cards in 2002 came from the conversion of existing ATM cards, though banks also reported a significant number of new accounts.
