Consumers are now able to receive their municipal account statements via WhatsApp and securely make payments to the municipality. This service has been extended to over 160,000 ratepayers in Emalahleni Local Municipality. The digitization of payments has made life easier for municipal customers who previously had limited payment options and had to go to municipal offices or retail outlets to pay their accounts. Mastercard and Tsogatec’s digital solution operates on the Mastercard Gateway platform.
Through this solution consumers can pay their bills with any kind of debit or credit card, irrespective of which bank they are with. Individuals without full banking facilities who, for example, use SASSA cards for payment can now use these cards to purchase prepaid electricity or pay their municipal accounts conveniently and securely on their phones. This increases and extends the financial inclusion of consumers who can now use their SASSA cards to pay for essential municipal services.
With this solution both ratepayers and the municipality benefit from safe payments that add convenience while saving time and money. These new channels also introduce new communication channels that will allow consumers to message municipalities directly for a variety of services and/or interactions to better improve service delivery.
“It has been exciting to work with Mastercard and Emalahleni Municipality on the development and implementation of the bill payment solution,” says David Gatama, Chief Executive, Tsogatec. “The collaborative efforts have resulted in a solution that resolved a number of challenges for them. There has been good uptake on the prepaid electricity purchasing side, and we are keen to roll out further capabilities on the system in July. We have helped the municipality to reduce the amount of cash it handles and made reconciliation of accounts much easier as files are automatically downloaded from the MPGS platform and uploaded into the municipality’s system.”
Anonymized data gleaned from payment transactions and enquiries, combined with Mastercard and Tsogatec’s analytics capabilities, generates insights that help build updated service offerings that will better serve their customers’ needs.
Solutions born from partnerships such as this are important and can be replicated across the country, bringing the citizenry, business, and government closer in an efficient safe, transparent, and trusted manner. As the system develops greater functionality, consumers will also be able to interact with all departments within the local municipality in their own language, which also helps increase inclusion.