BUSINESS TECHNOLOGY MEDIA FOR AFRICA

Prepaid electricity app launched in South Africa

Prepaid electricity app launched in South Africa
Simnikiwe Mzekandaba
By Simnikiwe Mzekandaba, IT in government editor
14 Jul 2014

South African online prepaid electricity and airtime transactions company, Prepaid24, has launched a mobile application to help customers reload any time from anywhere.

The Prepaid24 app, which went live last week, is available for download from the Apple and Google Play stores.

According to Prepaid24 business architect Ben Lindeque, the mobile app is a way of personalising client service and support by combining technology and social media.

Lindeque told ITWeb Africa that his company currently processes 120,000 prepaid electricity transactions per month, and average spend per client is R1,350.

According to electricity public utility Eskom, there are 4.7 million South African prepaid electricity customers.

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"The last thing we wanted to develop is ‘another’ app that doesn’t add value to the user,” he told ITWeb Africa.

“For that reason the planning, development and refinement of this mobile app was meticulously done over the last 18 months," he noted.

The app includes features such as reminders to purchase electricity and airtime, tariff structures of client’s local municipality and consumption graphs.

"The most innovative feature of the Prepaid24 app is probably its patented ‘Emergency Electricity’ tokens. This feature allows users to buy emergency electricity tokens for their devices, which are then kept in a virtual safe on the app. These tokens are not sent to the client via e-mail or SMS, as is the case with other tokens," said Lindeque.

He added, "It is our belief that ‘emergency electricity tokens’ will restore the faith in the prepaid electricity system, that clients and consumers may have lost over the years after arriving at shops only to hear those dreaded words: ‘Your municipality/Eskom is offline.’”

Launched in 2009, Prepaid24 is an online reseller of prepaid products for major South African municipalities and cellphone networks.

Prepaid24 offers clients an electronic funds transfer (EFT) and cellphone banking payment solution with direct clearing through the 4 major banks namely ABSA, Nedbank, First National Bank and Standard Bank.

Customers can receive their tokens via SMS as well as E-mail.

Including South Africa - Prepaid24 also operates in Namibia, Swaziland and Botswana.

Lindeque told ITWeb Africa that the Prepaid24 app is planned to be available in Namibia and Botswana by 1 August 2014.

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