Give us paperless banking

By The Southern Eye | Mar. 18, 2014

NEDBANK, one of South Africa’s leading banks, is currently running an advert on most of South African TV channels to promote one of their new products on the market, the PocketPOS.

While we are used to the point-of-sale gadgets installed at mainly supermarkets, shops and food outlets, this is a new form of banking that not only promotes paperless banking, mobile banking, but also promotes real time banking as well as tapping in on the often ignored informal sector of Africa’s economy.

I was forced to take a look at this product, after my daughter asked me what a PocketPOS is, as the advert was running. At first my answer was . . . ahhhh, we don’t have it in Zimbabwe.

I then explained to her it is just like the one we swipe at the supermarket when buying groceries, instead of always carrying cash around. With the PocketPOS the idea is to have a mobile POS mainly for those who conduct their business while moving from point to point or those who don’t want to be always going to the bank, I further explained to her.

This is a brilliant innovation, something that is lacking within the Zimbabwe banking sector. One has to appreciate the coming in of EcoCash as well as TeleCash and OneWallet, products that have forced most of the banks to embark on mobile banking that enables the banking public to check their balances on their mobile phones, purchase air time as well as move funds from account to account.

Whereas the mobile banking promoted by the banks requires one to have a running account, the mobile cellular companies’ movement of cash does not need one to have a bank account, but it’s just a question of registering with the specific cellular company.

For a long time many analyst have queried the number of banks we have in the country, to an extent of describing the sector as over banked. Maybe they are right when you consider that we have 18 commercial banks (if you include CABS), three merchant banks, four building societies and one savings bank POSB.

What has made the situation worse is that the 26 financial institutions offer more or less the same products, with little innovation. It has left the banks focusing mainly on customer service as a way of having an edge over one another as well as transaction volumes as a way of realising more revenue rather than introducing new products and encouraging plastic money for most of the transactions.

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In sharp contrast, South Africa has four major banks that offer a variety of products to suit most of its people. By the nature of its economy it also has representative banks like the bank of China, Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, Deutsche Bank AG etc and a host of other financial institutions.

It is the innovation aspect, in terms of products range that is impressive about South African banking. They are encouraging paperless banking, while moving away from the old concept of flocking the banks with long queues.

I particularly like this PocketPOS; it’s unique in that suppose one of the banks was to introduce it here, even a welder in Cowdray Park can be paid through his mobile POS and it enables him to do 200 transactions a day and the charges of having the device are very reasonable.

The innovation can even be taken to social/sporting clubs, where members can even swipe to purchase clubs’ merchandise.

How about a swipe to buy a Dynamos jersey or a Bosso jersey at Rufaro and Babourfields stadiums respectively? Maybe even the churches would like the idea?

Our banks need to be innovative and take a leaf from some of the products from South Africa.

Who’s it for?