Blue Label, Mastercard partner to deliver POS devices to rural businesses
About 22 000 small traders and rural shops in South Africa will soon be equipped with credit card payment-enabled point of sale (POS) devices, opening up business for a predominantly cash-based market, Blue Label joint CEO Mark Levy said on Tuesday.
The JSE-listed communications group has partnered with Mastercard to upgrade about 7 000 existing POS systems, which were previously used for selling prepaid vouchers, such as for airtime and electricity, as well as to roll out in excess of 15 000 new EMV-certified, contactless-ready POS terminals in townships and informal settlements.
These would allow traders to accept chip and pin-based debit, cheque or credit cards issued by Standard Bank, Absa, Nedbank and the South African Social Security Agency (Sassa), as well as contactless payment cards for goods and services.
Traders would also be able to sell Blue Label's prepaid vouchers using a single device on a safer, more secure and convenient electronic platform.
This comes shortly after Blue Label committed to the distribution of about 10 000 partially subsidised low-cost POS terminals throughout South Africa’s rural areas over the next year.
The initiative would give merchants with monthly profits of less than R25 000, free or low-cost access to POS systems.
“Over and above the estimated 100 000 spaza shops spread across South Africa, there are tens of thousands of small- and medium-sized retailers and service providers,” said Levy.
Comments
The
functionality
you are trying to access is only available to subscribers.
If you are already a subscriber, you can Login Here.
If you are not a subscriber, you can subscribe now, by selecting one of the below options.
For more information or assistance, please contact us at subscriptions@creamermedia.co.za.
Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):
Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):
All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors
including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.
Already a subscriber?
Forgotten your password?
Receive weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine (print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
➕
Recieve daily email newsletters
➕
Access to full search results
➕
Access archive of magazine back copies
➕
Access to Projects in Progress
➕
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA
R4500 (equivalent of R375 a month)
SUBSCRIBEAll benefits from Option 1
➕
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports on various industrial and mining sectors, in PDF format, including on:
Electricity
➕
Water
➕
Energy Transition
➕
Hydrogen
➕
Roads, Rail and Ports
➕
Coal
➕
Gold
➕
Platinum
➕
Battery Metals
➕
etc.
Receive all benefits from Option 1 or Option 2 delivered to numerous people at your company
➕
Multiple User names and Passwords for simultaneous log-ins
➕
Intranet integration access to all in your organisation