Low connectivity across Africa has historically been an issue for paying social grants leaving the poorest of the poor even more vulnerable in deep rural areas.
Technology from Paycode is overcoming this barrier, working in places where there is no phone or internet connectivity, so citizens can still get paid their social grants or pensions, make a payment or withdraw cash offline in real-time.
Johannesburg-based fintech Paycode, together with local partners Paycode Mozambique and the country’s national social services agency INAS, successfully created a biometric identity for 18 000 of Mozambique’s most vulnerable citizens in deep rural areas to facilitate the payment of social grants.
Last week those efforts paid off when 4×4 cash trucks started driving from village to village distributing cash payments for social grants.
Rob Bakker, project manager for INAS’s social grants programme, comments: “The combination of biometric authentication and the ability to make payments offline in real time is a winning solution which meets all the criteria for successfully paying social grants in remote locations.”
Paycode CEO Ralph Pecker adds: “Our focus is enabling financial inclusion through innovative technology that really works, even in the world’s most remote places.”
Paycode services both private and governmental contracts across Africa and specialises in payment technologies using biometric identity cards that provide digital banking offline in real time at a fraction of the cost of traditional bank accounts. Its technology is currently being used to pay over four million Africans their government salaries, social grants, pensions and agriculture loans.