Absa launches South Africa’s first NFC pilot
06 December, 2011
category: NFC
Absa, the largest consumer bank in South Africa, has announced an internal trial of NFC-enabled contactless payments, according to IT News Africa.
Scheduled to kick off later this month, the pilot will see 500 Absa employees equip their BlackBerry smart phones with NFC-enabled MicroSD cards that can be used to make contactless payments.
Participants will be able to load money onto the microsSD card to tap and pay at the point of sale using MasterCard’s payPass technology. Payments will initially be limited to Absa’s head office, Vodacom’s Vodacom World building in Midrand, and on the transit system in the Western Cape.
Following this initial trial, Absa plans to expand the service to more customers and incorporate different phone models – including those with built-in NFC technology, according to IT News.
In line with the new trial, Absa also recently announced that it plans to deliver contactless payment cards to its customers as early as the end of the year.
Read more here.