Business in a Box for mobile resellers from Paratus Telecom
Leading Namibian ICT provider, Paratus Telecom, said this week it has diversified its product offering by launching a new mobile airtime distribution service called “Katiti”. The service runs on Nomanini’s popular cloud-based mobile point of sale platform and is designed to be used by informal traders and budding entrepreneurs.
John D’Alton, Managing Director: Namibia, Paratus Telecom, explained “We wanted to bring something new to the market, something that would not only benefit us, and the two million people who use prepaid phones, but something that would also give small business owners an opportunity to supplement their incomes.”
Local vendors are given a brightly coloured and virtually indestructible terminal called “Business in a Box” from which they sell prepaid airtime vouchers. The platform is cloud-based, so vendors simply ‘upload’ airtime when they have internet access. The beauty of the system is that reselling doesn’t require any connectivity or even electricity.
The vendor simply selects the type and amount of airtime to be sold and a voucher is printed within seconds. The box’s battery lasts five days and is fully charged after just eight hours making it ideal for rural areas where electricity access is difficult or not available.
Vahid Monadjem, CEO of Nomanini said “Namibia is the tenth African country in which we have forged a partnership and we look forward to embark on the journey with John and his team.” Nomanini was recently selected as a finalist for this year’s DAC prize in the category: Taking Development Innovation to Scale. Among the factors that impressed the judging panel was the prospect of better service delivery at lower cost for the poor in Africa, enhanced transparency of micro-payments, and the potential to upscale.
Nomanini is a South African-based mobile Point of Sale service for facilitating cash transactions in emerging markets. With its rugged point of sale terminals and highly scalable, cloud-based backend, enterprises are able to distribute prepaid mobile and electricity vouchers and facilitate micropayments in undeveloped markets.
Paratus Telecom was founded as Internet Technologies Namibia in 2005 and was the first privately owned 100% Namibian telecommunications operator.
Since inception, Paratus Telecom has established a prolific network across all of Namibia, with additional points of presence in Johannesburg (South Africa), Lisbon (Portugal) and London (UK). This network is commensurate of our ability to provide exceptional customer service at all times.
On 20 March 2012 it was issued a Class Comprehensive Telecommunications Service License (ECS & ECNS) following further expansion of its 4G network, and networks that service the Namibian public as well as the private and corporate sectors.
