Johannesburg- and New York-listed Net1 UEPS Technologies, the company that owns Cash Paymaster Services (CPS), the business that pays social grants on behalf of the South African government, has announced plans to export the underlying technology to other developing markets.
CPS, whose contract with social security agency Sassa was declared invalid by the constitutional court following a protracted legal battle, is responsible for paying 17m social grants to indigent South Africans every month. The court ordered in March this year that a suspension of invalidity of the contract would continue until March 2018 to allow Sassa to award the business to a new service provider.
Net1 has now appointed a “fintech veteran”, Carl Scheible, to globalise the technology that underpins the social grants system, potentially helping to de-risk its exposure to the South African market.
Scheible has 22 years of experience in the technology, financial services and payments industry, Net1 said in a statement to shareholders before markets opened on Friday.
Most recently, he served as chief commercial officer at eNett International, which provides B2B travel payment solutions. Prior to that, he was executive regional vice president at MoneyGram International, a global money transfer and payment services company. He is also a former MD of PayPal in the UK.
“This is a significant strategic move for the company,” said Net1 CEO Herman Kotze. “It will enable Net1 to truly become a global leader in its space.”
Net1 said in the statement that it has a track record in large-scale payment system deployment, as demonstrated by a “faultless payment record in social benefit payments in South Africa”.
“Its technology enables the accurate identification of recipients and the seamless disbursement of social benefits from cities to deep rural communities, enabling real-time accessibility without infrastructure while also eliminating fraud,” it said. — (c) 2017 NewsCentral Media
