Oberthur Technologies, a supplier of smart card solutions, has completed the deployment of its mobile commerce (M-Commerce) security solution for Zain’s 15 sub Saharan African operations.
Zain’s M-Commerce, Zap, is a SIM security application and security gateway which enables Zain customers to use their mobile phone to securely pay bills for goods and services.
The service allows Zain customers in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda to receive and send money to friends and family as well as to receive money from any bank account around the world and send money to other bank accounts through their mobile phones. They can also top up their own, or someone else’s, airtime account and manage their bank accounts.
Saad Al Barrak, CEO of Zain, said: “For any market in the world, the combination of services we are providing through Zap mobile commerce would be exciting. but when set in an African context, the implications are especially profound given the critical economic needs of many Africans living the countries in which Zain operates.”
George Held, marketing director of products and innovation at Zain Group, said: “We selected Oberthur Technologies as our security solutions partner because of the company’s’ proven leadership in the field of mobile smart card and security solutions, their global support for our offer, and the desire of the team to take the initial first steps to innovate technologically advanced and customized solutions to meet Zain’s service offering.”
