Unlike in European markets, 90% of retail payments in Africa are via cash, with only 10% of payments made electronically.

Though South Africa is moving fast into a cash-less economy, it still has an estimated 67% of the adult population unbanked, and 37% live in rural areas.

Giving the unbanked access to formal financial services such as insurance policies has its benefits to individuals: improved well-being, financial responsibilities taken care of, and a personal sense of worth for the heads of the home. But, considering the percentage of citizens who are unbanked and/or in rural areas there is the treat of: theft of collections, fraud, inaccurate reporting, and poor customer service during emotional times.

Enter EasiPol,  designed by software consultancy RubiBlue is a secure and simple collection of cash payments fully customisable for administrators and insurance underwriters.  EasiPol manages two million policies across southern Africa, collecting around R85 million per month in payments, of which R50 million is in cash. EasiPol also allows payment for those banked via debit order, stop order and EasyPay. Apart from collection of policy payments for insurers, EasiPol can also be applied within any subscriber/membership organization with collection models: political parties, unions, taxi associations, societies etc.

According to RubiBlue MD Chris Ogden: “Having discussed the pitfalls of cash collections with many organisations, one business mentioned it ‘lost’ monies of up to R750,000 a month. It only discovered this after the installation of EasiPol. Being a web-based system, it allows convenient on-demand access from any web browser, including mobile devices. As well as the collection and recording of payments there is a policy document repository feature and is compliant to. “

In addition to increasing collections from an operational perspective it improves the management of day-to-day tasks because of accurate and up to date data, and its in-depth audit trailing to manage and prevent fraud and theft, EasiPol aims to make sales and collections in the field are made using a remote terminal for payments, data look-ups and receipting for transparent and accurate reporting. Organisations using EasiPol have reported an increase in collections and reported better client satisfaction.

 

 

The software also provides a complete multi-platform policy administration/payment solution, ensuring a secure, centralised, backed up data store, which prevents fraud and theft; ensuring administrator and client peace of mind.