Emerge Mobile: SA’s 1st global certified MPOS solution targets African SMEs

Mobile phones have become a part of everyday life, and being able to use your mobile for anything and everything is not just the near-future, but it’s happening right now. One area where mobiles are flourishing is as a payment solution, and with that we see the rise of mobile point of sale (MPOS) payments solutions — a highly competitive space.

Emerge Mobile, a South African-based tech company that specialises in MPOS payments, has achieved Payments Council International Payment Terminal Security (PCI-PTS), as well as Europay, MasterCard and Visa (EMV) Level 1 and 2 certifications for its MPOS payment card acceptance solution.

Emerge Mobile claims that this is the first time a fully designed, engineered and manufactured “end-to-end” MPOS solution from South Africa has attained this level of international security certification. With the new achievement, the company wants to position itself to provide MPOS solutions to SMEs across Africa and other emerging markets.

The Emerge Mobile MPOS solution consists of the following features:

• An acceptance platform.
• Web portal.
• Native smartphone merchant applications.
• Hardware adapter to turn smartphone into a secure POS to accept Chip & PIN and Magstripe card payments.
• Accepts payments from third-party moible wallets
• Enables the redemption of mobile vouchers and coupons
• Compatible with iOS and Android

This means that the solution is as similar as it can be to existing card payment procedures so that both the customer and retailer can be comfortable with the solution.

Emerge Mobile’s solution will now be registered with the MasterCard Mobile MPOS Programme and the Visa Ready Programme, which showcases it to international acquiring banks and exposes it to potential strategic partners internationally.

“Achieving the full range of international certification requirements means that Emerge Mobile’s MPOS solution is compliant with the rules set by the global card schemes and legislated financial institutions,” says Matt Putman, managing director of Emerge Mobile.

The mobile payments space in Africa has been on the rise ever since M-pesa came into fruition — reportedly, 55-million Africans use mobile phones to transfer money, or collect payments. As Putman explains:

“Particularly in Africa, there is growing adoption of MPOS technology by small enterprises as they understand the benefits of cost reductions, rich functionality, higher sales, and the attraction of payment on-the-go for their customers”

The African ‘mobile money’ market is predicted to be worth US$160-billion by 2016.