Sybase 365 & MoPay International Launch Pioneering Mobile Commerce Initiative for Under-Serviced & Unbanked Communities in So...
November 11 2009 - 3:00AM
Business Wire
AfricaCom – Sybase 365, a subsidiary of Sybase, Inc.
(NYSE:SY), the global leader in mobile messaging and mobile
commerce, today announced it is working with MoPay, an independent
mobile services provider for the banking, telecoms and technology
industries, to enable diverse communities in South Africa to access
mobile commerce services.
This partnership will improve access to financial services for
the under-serviced and un-banked communities of South Africa –
individuals that would ordinarily struggle to connect with
traditional banking and commerce mechanisms due to geographical or
sociological barriers. Aimed primarily at lower to middle social
groupings that are dependent on services provided in
municipalities, it will also facilitate enhanced efficiency of
payment collection for government bodies, utilities providers and
educational organisations.
Sybase 365 is managing all of the messaging interconnection for
the service using a dedicated SMS short-code - 31636 - that
functions across all South African operator networks. Sybase 365
also provides the mobile payments platform, to process all
financial transactions between the customer and the government and
corporate entities.
“It is very rewarding to be at the forefront of a project which
can really make a profound difference to the lives of people in
South Africa. So many people are faced with a half day round trip
to reach services that they can now access using a network
independent, ubiquitous mCommerce service. It would be difficult
for a farmer to give up a day tending his farm to go to visit his
bank,” said Cobus Potgieter, CEO, MoPay. “Our partnership with
Sybase 365 enables us to extend mobile-based service offerings to
many more diverse, under-privileged and remote communities.”
“Projects such as this are changing the way in which South
Africans can transact with key organisations,” said Matthew Talbot,
vice president, mCommerce at Sybase 365. “Significant numbers of
unbanked individuals across South Africa, who have no formal
relationship with a financial institution, can now easily pay for a
variety of core services, and receive disbursements via the
efficient and trusted mobile channel.”
The initial service provides real-time electricity pre-pay meter
recharge for Eskom (the South African electricity public utility)
and various municipalities using the MoPay mobile wallet running on
a network independent platform. The service is designed to enable
lower income consumers to easily manage their electricity payments
by way of micro-payments and help municipalities and public
utilities improve payment efficiencies. A key element of the
service is to facilitate the distribution of Free Basic Electricity
tokens (tokens distributed by the government to low-income
households), sent by SMS to registered meter owners, thus improving
the accessibility of this vital state benefit to poorer households.
In the future MoPay intends to add a variety of innovative social
payment and disbursement schemes to the portfolio, with a
significant focus on assisting the government of South Africa and
socially targeted corporations to disburse and collect funds.
Although a commercial trading entity, MoPay is a unique
organisation that focuses on the social needs of communities in an
inclusive manner. As well as providing this payment mechanism,
MoPay also facilitates other services vital to thriving villages
and communities, such as free communications, free SMS between
schools and parents and free content for schools and students. For
example, the supply of 30 minutes free and uncapped Internet time
at Vlocity Hotspots all over South Africa to MoPay users.
For more information about mobile
commerce services, visit Sybase 365 at:AfricaCom, November
11-12, 2009, Cape Town, South Africa. Stand # B13A
About MoPay International
The current MoPay International Limited supplier relationship
framework includes members of the banking-, telecoms-, hardware-,
software-, and service supplier communities. MoPay is independently
held, active in projects in many countries worldwide and
increasingly acts as a technology distribution platform, along with
its sister media company OmniMo International Limited. For
more information, visit www.mopay.co.za, www.omnimo.tv and
www.mobilehub.co.za
About Sybase 365
Sybase 365, a subsidiary of Sybase, Inc. (NYSE: SY), is the
global leader in enabling mobile information services for mobile
operators, financial institutions and enterprises. We provide our
customers with the widest offering in SMS, MMS and GRX
interoperability, end-to-end mobile commerce solutions, innovative
text messaging, mobile marketing and content delivery services.
Sybase 365 processes more than one billion messages per day,
reaching 800 operators and 3.4 billion subscribers around the
world. For more information, visit: http://www.sybase.com/365. Read
Sybase blogs: http://blogs.sybase.com.
Sybase and Sybase 365 are trademarks or registered trademarks of
Sybase, Inc. All other company and product names mentioned may be
trademarks of the respective companies with which they are
associated. ® indicates registration in the United States.
Forward-Looking Statements
Certain statements in this release concerning Sybase, Inc. new
and expanded business relationships and products are
forward-looking and involve a number of uncertainties and risks.
Factors that could cause actual events or results to differ
materially from those suggested by these forward-looking statements
include, but are not limited to, the performance of the global
economy and growth in software industry sales; market acceptance of
the company's products and services; customer and industry analyst
perception of the company and its technology vision and future
prospects; the success of certain business combinations engaged in
by the company or by competitors; political unrest or acts of war;
possible disruptive effects of organizational or personnel changes;
and other factors described in Sybase, Inc.'s reports filed with
the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, including its annual
report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2008.
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