Botswana post introduces smart card 

 

2 May 2014

Monthend long queus at post offices across the country, especially during facilitation of social benefit payments, are expected to be a thing of the past following the introduction of the admirable ‘PosoCard’ by BotswanaPost.
 
Services that are expected to be improved include payments of Old Age Pensions, World War Veterans and Destitute allowances. The new system named ‘PosoCard’ means that the existing beneficiaries will be migrated from the old system of using coupons, into the new one. Botswana Post Chief Executive, Pele Moleta, said at the launch that PosoCard is an electronic smart card that will replace the current voucher system used to pay social beneficiary money.

“We found it necessary to switch from the voucher system to the card payments as the production, reconciliation and distribution of the vouchers is lengthy and therefore costly. As opposed to the voucher system which only had one purpose, the card has more uses,” he said Beneficiaries, according to Moleta, can use their PosoCard to access their social benefit anywhere in the country and at anytime using multiple payment channels, such as Post Offices, cash pay-points, and selected merchant stores.

The card may also be used to purchase goods at a participating payment vendor having a point-of-sale (POS) device, purchase airtime, pay water and electricity accounts and other services.
 
 
Source: The Voice