Cashless transactions for spaza shop owners
ALEXANDRA – The new Spazapp is set to revolutionise the way informal traders do business.
Mastercard has collaborated with Durban-based tech company Spazapp to bring secure, seamless and convenient mobile payments to thousands of informal traders and convenience stores, better known as spaza shops.
Ajay Banga, Mastercard president and chief executive officer, recently visited Paul Makeleke, owner of Kasi Convenience Food and Internet Café in Alexandra to see how the Spazapp is working for him.
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“Too many informal micro-retailers are stuck, like their customers, in a cash economy that doesn’t work for them,” said Mark Elliott, division president for Mastercard, Southern Africa.
He explained that by matching up Spazapp’s extensive supplier and distribution network with digital payment and acceptance solutions from Mastercard, the group are able to help these shop owners build a better future and serve their customers who are themselves demand safer and more convenient ways to pay.
More than 4 500 micro businesses already using Spazapp can generate significant savings on stock procurement.
Traders no longer need to close their stores to buy stock, miss out on bulk buying savings due to of cash flow constraints or have to worry about the security risks.
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“Our goal is to uplift last mile traders and disadvantaged communities by simplifying the buying process for small, informal traders through competitive pricing and collective bargaining power,” said Tim Strang, chief executive of Spazapp.
“Masterpass has the scale, efficiency and convenience we need to offer merchants a truly accessible, low risk and affordable way to accept electronic payments from their customers and pay their suppliers.”
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