GoPay signs up 94th fuel merchant

Bank Windhoek recently celebrated the registration of the 94th fuel station merchant participating in the recently-launched GoPay mobile fuel payment service.

GoPay merchants have welcomed this technological innovation in the fuel industry and continue to receive positive feedback from their customers. One such merchant, Mervin Gertze, owner of Shell Tal Valley, said that GoPay has been tremendously successful, with the volumes of customers to his service station increasing since the launch of this mobile solution.

“We welcome GoPay, the new payment method from Bank Windhoek at Nelson Mandela Puma Service Station. We believe that it will add value to our customers,” said Houghie Coetzer, Manager of Nelson Mandela Puma Service Station.

Each fuel merchant has their own Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) merchant code, which is visible on the lanyards worn by service staff. The code can be saved for repeat use at service stations that customers visit regularly. Once the customer enters the USSD code and follows the payment instructions, the fuel merchant will receive payment confirmation. It is important to remember that the customer must have Full Access CellPhone Banking to enjoy the convenience of paying for fuel using GoPay at participating fuel merchants across Namibia.

“With GoPay, you can use any cellphone model to make payments to fuel merchants, instead of being limited to cash, credit or debit transactions. There’s also no need to withdraw cash from an ATM, hence no ATM fees. Bank Windhoek charges a flat fee per transaction, regardless of the amount of fuel a customer wishes to purchase, making this a very affordable payment option,” said Donovan van Rooi, Business Development Officer: Electronic Channels.

“This relieves our customers of the hassle of withdrawing cash before refuelling. They can also make fuel payments on behalf of friends, or family, who may be located in other towns, which is a great help when drivers are desperately in need of fuel, but may be stranded without cash or card. This cashless solution also contributes to customer safety by limiting the amount of cash our customers drive around with. Customers have to enter their unique CellPhone Banking password to access this service, hence their funds remain secure. A safer trading environment is also created for merchants; less cash means reduced risk of theft and fraud,” added Van Rooi.

Van Rooi reminded merchants to ensure that all their service staff are informed about GoPay to provide the best service to their customers. If there is a network failure, or congestion during the transaction, the merchant has an option on their mobile phone allowing them to check if the transaction has gone through. Merchants can keep abreast of all transactions through automated, itemised billing reports that they can use to make daily reconciliations. These are received through their dedicated email addresses.

The GoPay solution is another step for Bank Windhoek to allow our customers to do banking at their fingertips – anywhere and anytime. For a full list of merchants visit www.bankwindhoek.com.na