Wizzit Bank - Low Cost Banking For The Unbanked
by Brian Richardson2006-08-29 14:50:56 | Viewed 6427 times
Editor's note: Wizzit Bank has been making waves in South Africa. Indeed, it can be considered to be a revolution in banking, especially for Africa where the ratio of people banking is much lower to those not banking the formal way. Wizzit has been attracting the attention of the international media in recent times, we therefore reproduce a write-up by Brian Richardson - Founding Director of Wizzit.
WIZZIT Bank - Low cost banking for the unbanked
Country: South Africa
Organization: WIZZIT
2) Sector of activity: Financial Services
3) Description of your products or services: WIZZIT BANK
Introduction
Easy access to affordable and accessible banking facilities could be very beneficial and convenient to all those who respond accordingly to our country’s technological evolution. 14 million people have been excluded as economic citizens and do not have full access to financial services including bank accounts. Furthermore remitting money to friends and family, who do not live in the cities or with the wage earner, becomes a major problem. Coupled with this is the opportunity afforded by the fact that there are 22 million cell phones in South Africa and it is estimated that 60% of the 14 million unbanked people have cell phones. Three years ago the founders of WIZZIT started on the journey to find a solution that would make the lives of many South Africans easier by providing them with affordable and accessible financial services. Once a viable business was established in South Africa, WIZZIT would be taken to other markets – predominantly developing nations all facing similar problems with respect to accessibility and affordability
Background Information
WIZZIT is a Proudly South African product developed by seasoned business and marketing executives as well as financial and ICT specialists. It is effectively a new fully functional and interoperable Bank operating as a division of the South African Bank of Athens which acts as a sponsor into the payments system. WIZZIT is furthermore an accredited issuer of MasterCard’s MAESTRO debit card and MasterCard has certified WIZZIT’s unique cell phone technology as a payments channel To WIZZIT, BEE status is not a strategy to attract government and private sector business but a business imperative meant to ensure South Africa’s global competitiveness. Currently WIZZIT has a 26% BEE partner which comprises broad base empowerment groups – one of 700 000 union members and the other 300 000 predominantly rural women.
Problem Statement
At WIZZIT, we believe that true banking is when an individual has access to his/her money as and when they so require. The fact that sometimes you can’t access money, deposit, transfer, or purchase simply because banks are only accessible between 9am and 15h30 pm was enough reason to sanction a redress and reverse of the above undesirable situation. We cannot be silent about the fact that queuing in a traditional bank has become such a nightmare for the working class, more so because the above class has limited time at the end of each month. The average time taken to access a financial institution in South Africa is 58 minutes which is clearly unacceptable. The recently launched Mzansi Account does not solve the inherent problems as the account is delivered by the same institutions with the same operating hours. As we all know it is a very limited account offering the most basic functionality.
Proposed Solutions
Ensure that all members and their families (optional) have an internationally recognized debit card for purchases and ATM withdrawals, a fully functional bank account on which clients can have debit orders and stop orders as well as genuine real time transactional capability on their cell phones for the payment of accounts, person to person transfers and the purchase of airtime.
What does this mean?
It means that all WIZZIT bank account holders shall be in a position to perform all transactions from their cell- phones anytime, anywhere and everyday including weekends.
What are these transactions?
• Transferring money from your WIZZIT account to any other bank’s account holder, without leaving the comfort of your home, any time of the day or night. • Purchasing airtime for yourself or any other person from your cell-phone, • Payment of all your accounts (Edgars, electricity, bond and many other accounts) from your cell phone. • Cash withdrawal at any ATM with a Maestro sign across the world.
As many other people say, WIZZIT is a 24/7 bank in your pocket.
Relationship with other Banks
WIZZIT is a virtual Bank and as such can provide the market with affordable banking transactions. WIZZIT is totally interoperable with the existing financial services infra-structure. WIZZIT has an arrangement with ABSA (800 branches) and the South African Post Office (2600 outlets) that deposits can be made at either of these two institutions into their WIZZIT accounts. This gives WIZZIT the largest deposit taking footprint of any Financial institution in the country. Of course salaries and wages can be deposited directly into a persons WIZZIT account.
Security
It is an international phenomenon that all transactions be protected by a PIN code. WIZZIT is no different, both ATM and cell-phone transactions are protected by a PIN code respectively. On these grounds banking with WIZZIT, is as safe as banking with any other bank internationally. In addition, all WIZZIT’s systems have been certified by MasterCard.
Our competitive Advantage
Price
We pride ourselves in the fact that we provide our clients with a premier service at very low costs as compared to our competitors. There are NO MONTHLY FEES and WIZZIT is in essence “pay as you go” banking. Furthermore there is no minimum balance.
Technology
We have worked very hard to ensure that the functionality of the product is both easy to understand and to use. WIZZIT was the first to launch cell phone banking that is not only secure but works across all networks, works on any cell phone irrespective of age, and on all SIM cards.
Customer service
• At WIZZIT, we ensure that all your answers are right on your cell-phone. Our services are backed by a professional consultant who is waiting for your call 24/7. • We pride ourselves on the fact that our call centre speaks “your language” and state of the art technology routes your call to an agent who will speak to you in your preferred language. • NO Credit checks • Less than 2 minutes to open an account any time of the day or night 7 days a week • We make it as easy as possible for everyone to open an account and comply with FICA requirements without using this an excuse not to open accounts • With our unique WIZZkid model, we have representatives within communities across the country that will go to you to open accounts. This means that you do not have to go to the bank incurring transport costs and inconvenience • Could be open for everybody including schools kids.
Our Philosophies
We only employ unemployed people and to date have given employment and income opportunities to over 1 000 people. In a country where unemployment is high we do not believe that we need to “poach” people out of productive employment.
We are very focused and committed to the development of our people and everyone goes through recognized and accredited training programmes.
We have a firm policy of promoting from within and due to the very high growth that we are experiencing since our launch in late 2004, many people have been fast tracked
Conclusion
In a recent research sponsored by CGAP, MasterCard and Finmark Trust, it is noted that WIZZIT has created a “cult following” amongst its users. We are ahead of our forecasts in terms of both number of accounts opened as well as transactional useage.
We are justifiably proud of our achievements to date in our very short history. We have genuinely made a huge difference in the lives of many people – customer and employees alike. Farm workers now have a fully functional bank account where they can keep their money safe, buy airtime from where they are, send money home, pay their accounts, and have debit orders on their accounts for funeral and burial policies. All of this saves them huge amounts of time and money.
Finally the real time benefits of WIZZIT to WIZZIT transfers cannot be underestimated and we have many, many stories as to how this has helped in times of emergencies.
Contact Information:
Name: Brian Richardson - Founding Director
Organization: WIZZIT
Mailing address: P.O. Box 786551 Sandton 2146
Country: South Africa
Email: BrianR@wizzit.co.za
Tel: 2711 523-5600
Fax: 27115235601
Website: www.wizzit.co.za
Organization's legal status: Pty Ltd company
Number of Employees: 50 full time ; 1000 commission based sales people - all previously unemployed
|
 |
|
|
 |
2008-03-10 07:46:20
"how can i open an account with you guys"
petrus from jhb