Swiping machines for kombis

BULAWAYO residents will soon swipe for their commuter omnibus fares as transport associations are finalising a deal with a local bank — Steward Bank — that will see the financial institution providing tailormade point of sale machines ideal for small transactions.

Officials said a meeting is pencilled in for tomorrow that will see the parties involved thrashing out modalities and the new development could be in place by end of this week.

So far, transport associations that are part of the deal are the Bulawayo United Public Transporters’ Association (Bupta) and Tshova Mubaiwa. Speaking to Sunday News, Bupta administration director Mr Albert Ncube said they have partnered with Steward Bank which will provide the machines.

“Now it is too early to comment on its introduction because we are not yet certain on whether it will be successful. However, we are trying to work out something with Steward Bank and we might have something concrete on Monday, after our meeting,” he said.

Mr Ncube said their aim was to have an open system of doing business, where everyone with or without cash is accommodated.

“The reason why we are moving towards this way of making transactions is because we want to make sure that our customers can easily board our vehicles even if they don’t have cash with them. We don’t want a situation where our customers fail to board our vehicles because their money is in the bank,” he said.

This comes after Steward Bank launched Kwenga, a portable Point of Sale (POS) machine meant for small business which may not be able to buy the traditional POS machines. The Kwenga device has no charges for payments less than a $1, which makes it ideal for people such as vendors and commuter omnibuses. Kwenga also allows users to swipe into EcoCash.

Tshova Mubaiwa marketing director Mr Ndaba Mabunda said the Kwenga device was a welcome initiative which will make their dreams come true as they have always wanted to introduce swipe facilities in their businesses.

“We have already done a trial run with some of our 12 commuter omnibuses and it has proved successful. At the moment, we have engaged Steward Bank and very soon we will be launching it on a large scale because it improves our margins,” he said.

Some taxis have already introduced swiping machines and ecocash to facilitate easy payments. The Government has also reduced bank charges for swiping to improve the use of plastic money.