Contactless cards issued to drought victims in Kenya
21 October, 2011
category: Contactless
Charity organization SOS Children’s Villages is teaming up with Paystream to provide a contactless payment solution to improve food distribution in drought-stricken Northern Kenya.
The service, developed in part by sQuid, will provide the people of Marsabit, Kenya with contactless cards that can be used to purchase food supplies and other aid at several local stores and outlets.
According to Paystream, the traditional method used to distribute food aid is cash based, which commonly results in the misappropriation of funds. The new smart card-based solution is designed to help solve the logistical problems of aid distribution, while ensuring that aid gets to the right people and is spent on what it is intended for.
SOS Children’s Villages and Paystream have been working together with the local community and shop owners to devise a pre-paid card that can be used at specific POS terminals supplied to the stores by Paystream.
The partners says they will work to educate communities on how the system works, the money that each holds and the kind of food that they are allowed to purchase from the shops.
The partners are currently running a 6 month pilot of the system with three stores in Marsabit, but are looking to roll out similar programs across East Africa, according to Ndegwa.