Jack Dorsey must be so disappointed. His second successful start-up company, Square, is about to go public at a value of only US$4bn. Shame. But this number tells us many things about an entire
Browsing: Visa
Absa will be the first bank in South Africa to implement Visa’s new specification for the use of biometrics with chip card transactions and will develop a proof of concept trial to be launched this summer. The specification can enable palm, voice, iris or facial biometrics, Visa said in a
A second attempt by Vodacom to launch the M-Pesa mobile payments platform in South Africa has flopped. On Monday, the mobile operator conceded that since it relaunched M-Pesa in the
The Payments Association of South Africa (Pasa) is moving ahead with plans to fine merchants that have failed to comply with 3-D Secure, a new layer of verification for online payments. And it’s got some online retailers hot under the collar. While not everyone’s happy
Earlier this week, Old Mutual in Namibia unveiled a deal with Tranwall of Hong Kong to implement South African-developed “transaction control” technology on the OMcard, a prepaid Visa card that was developed specifically for Old Mutual customers in that country. The technology behind
How is this for ambitious? Vodacom in South Africa is hoping to sign up 10m subscribers to its M-Pesa mobile banking and payments platform within the next five years. To put that in context, the cellular operator managed to
Visa doesn’t just think a cashless society is possible, it thinks it could even happen soon — and in Africa. Visa country manager for South Africa Mandy Lamb says the payments technology company’s strategy is to displace the “trillions of dollars worth of cash” still in use across Africa. It’s not Visa’s intention to
South Africa’s cellular operators have been trying for years to crack the mobile commerce code, but haven’t been able to repeat the successes they’ve had in countries such as Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. MTN, working with Pick n Pay, may just have found the key to success at
In a move that will be regarded as a direct challenge to South Africa’s big banks, retailer Pick n Pay and mobile operator MTN have taken the wraps off a new, low-cost banking solution and free money transfer service that will be offered to consumers who sign up for a
MTN South Africa said on Monday that it has launched a Visa card for Mobile Money users, allowing them to pay for goods and services. They can also use the card to withdraw money from any ATM. TechCentral reported in November last year that MTN was in talks with Visa to make available a Mobile Money card