Just weeks after partnering with Uber for mobile payments, South Africa’s mobile financil services provider Zazoo today launched a Utility Vending System in a moveto simplify utility bill payments, tariff management and consumer arrears collection by firms, municipalities and individuals in the country.
According to Philip Belamant, Managing Director of Zazoo, “The system gives utility companies and municipalities the ability manage and control prepaid vending to their electricity, water and gas meters in a turnkey solution. As a meter-agnostic vending solution, this means that utility companies have the freedom to choose their preferred meter technology without fear of changing vending systems.”
Launched today at the African Utility Week in Cape Town the service is an enterprise-grade solution suited for management of prepaid services and includes fully managed token distribution across multiple channels, management of meter keys with remote key loading, and high level security with identity-based access and password control, as well as role-based authorisation to ensure system integrity.
It also has detailed transaction logging and comprehensive data reporting with insights into trends and performance for decision making. The firm has an alternative solution for small vendors and resellers known as the Sub-Meter Vending System.
Zazoo added that it’s working with mobile network operators to offer the platform as a service . The Utility Vending System can also be integrated into Zazoo’s Virtual Top Up technology to turn any mobile phone into a vending device for prepaid airtime, data, tickets, prepaid electricity among others.
