Wizzit.co.za - mobile banking for South Africa
Got an anonymous text in from D suggesting I take a look at wizzit.co.za — a rather funky service.
D commented:
Love this idea of being able to do all your transactions over the phone when you are living in a remote village somwhere in Africa. Could this, or does this work here already?
To answer your question, D, I would imagine that you’d need the correct financial accounting in place (a banking license and whatnot) together with some spiffy techonology to do something like that here — on the basis that ‘here’ is the UK.
Having a nose around the Wizzit site, I’m impressed.
If you fancy reading a little more about them, check out this recent feature on them, byline:
Cellphone banking could transform financial services in SA and the rest of the developing world.
For the record I am D.
Posted by David McQueen on January 3rd, 2007 at 5:25 pm.I am sure you know why this project interests me.
Happy New Year buddy!!
It looks wicked! Your text came in via the anonymous form David, I was respecting your privacy!
Posted by ewan on January 3rd, 2007 at 5:40 pm.You should check out Fundamo (www.fundamo.com) who provides the expertise and technology for companies like Wizzit. Also check out http://www.mtnbanking.co.za (much larger penetration than Wizzit and more functionality).
Posted by Hans on January 9th, 2007 at 1:12 pm.Yes, you need a banking license especially if you manage the money.
Many years ago I was involved in Fundamo. At that time it was basically a custom STK application on the phone. Maybe its Sanlam heritage impacted it as it didn’t really take off at the point in time and IMHO was not a very good design.
Then we implemented mobile banking for MTN and Vodacom using the OTA platform of Swedish firm Smarttrust. Due to its use of the Smarttrust browser it was very flexible and powerful solution. The drawback was that you had to work to the banks, which in general is a slow and error-prone if not political task to say the least. It was very secure though.
Then we implemented the system which I’m sure Wizzit is emulating if not copying, SMART Money from SMART Communications in the Philippines. SMART Money is based around a special sim card made by local South African company Prism. The sim itself is still years in front of its competition even though it is already 7 years old. It allows you a level of security and application freedom unmatched in the sim card environment. I have spent the last 4 years working for SMART Communication. Even though the environment in the country is mostly cash the system has a throughput of funds that cannot be matched in South-Africa.
I don’t know what technology wizzit is using on the phone. If they are targeting the unbanked population then it must be sms. If it is sms they better secure it, unless they get away with an unsecure solution like GCash from Globe, SMART’s competitor. Unsecure is fine for micro payments, we were doing a lot of that too, but not for banking. I hope its not WAP, and if it is J2ME, how many JSR177 compatible phones are there?
Anyway, have a look at http://www.smart.com.ph/SMART/Value+Added+Services/Smart+Money/ and see for yourself. I see it doesn’t list the full features of the product, but its all there and more and been around for years and years.
The operator itself is on its way to reaching the 1 billion sms’s per day, so its in a bit of a different league than the local operators, combined…
BTW. I don’t work there anymore, just wanted to point out how ‘unspecial’ this is. Wouldn’t have minded to start it myself though
Posted by Alwyn on January 12th, 2007 at 9:55 am.Anyone is free to contact me regarding WIZZIT to get the correct information as it would appear that a lot of people are making the incorrect assumptions and therefore miscommunicating the facts.
Posted by brian Richardson on January 16th, 2007 at 1:22 pm.WIZZIT does not use Fundamo technology; WIZZIT did not copy Smart or Globe; WIZZIT does not use SMS; WIZZIT was the first to launch in South Africa and was followed by FNB and only a year later by MTN/Standard Bank. It would be very difficult to comment that MTN is much bigger than WIZZIT. AS of a couple of months ago this certainly was not the case
Currently, Wizzit does not use Fundamo technology, but did run the first Wizzit prototype on Fundamo technology. The initial focus group run by Wizzit, funded by the Finmark Trust and on which the business case was built, was indeed run on Fundamo technology…
Posted by Hans on January 27th, 2007 at 2:22 pm.I appreciate what Wizzit is doing. I am In Lesotho and a heard a little about the campaign of black empowerment. I got interested on the investement wizzit is facilitating. Please send me more informatoin about it. Thank you
Posted by Rapelang Moshapane on October 31st, 2007 at 7:25 pm.The investment Wizzit is facilitating on black empowerment is the information I am trying to look for
Posted by Rapelang Moshapane on October 31st, 2007 at 7:30 pm.