Firm to roll out smart cards for the mass market

Business Daily: - Home Firm to roll out smart cards for the mass market
Kenya has remained a cash based economy despite the best efforts of banks to encourage the use of plastic money.

Kaps Limited, which is best known for its automated parking management systems, is determined to change this with the introduction of smart card technology.

Its cards will be targeted at the mass market for everyday payments such as fares on public transport vehicles, parking fees, shopping, buying airtime, payment of utilities, renting DVDs and even replacing pocket money given to students in boarding schools.

“You will find that even where consumers have debit or credit cards, they still need cash to make every day purchases like milk and bread at the kiosk and pay for parking or bus fare. Consumers get inconvenienced when the parking attendant or bus conductor does not have change for a large note. Our aim is to remove this hassle by offering consumers a pre-paid card loaded with cash which they can use to make such payments,” says Samuel Kahiga, managing director of Kaps Limited.