New device can help combat crime

Cape Town - Worried about crime? Opting for a mobile point-of-sale device (mPOS) and going for a no cash/cards only policy can help combat cash robberies. It could also bring down your company's insurance premiums.

This is according to Robert Boccia, IT executive at Lion of Africa Insurance, who says businesses operating in South Africa, especially small and informal businesses, are often under financial pressure to insure themselves against robberies.

“One of the biggest challenges businesses often face when carrying cash is the possibility of a robbery. It is often the small businesses who lack the resources to continue operating after the incident.”

Latest SA Police Service (Saps) crime statistics reveal that robberies in the business sector increased by 8.8% in 2012 compared to the previous year.

Boccia says adopting a cashless system, such as mPOS, could lower the risks of armed robberies, which could in turn bring down the cost of insuring your business, making insurance more affordable for small businesses.

“Small businesses and retailers already spend high premiums on fidelity insurance. We believe the adoption of mPOS could lead to an increasingly secure mode of transacting by removing the cash dynamic in purchases,” he says.

According to Boccia, mPOS is currently being adopted by small businesses around the globe that have previously only worked on a cash basis, never accepting card payments.

To improve the retail and payment experience, he says retailers that already accept card payments are now also adopting mPOS and implementing its solutions.

“We think South African consumers will adapt easily to mPOS.

"For example, Mastercard is currently aiming to enable 75% of small and medium-sized enterprises to adopt mPOS, and with 29 million people in SA owning a cellphone, there is huge opportunity for devices such as this,” said Boccia.

He says currently point-of-sale devices are rented to vendors at about R250 a month with a merchant fee charged on transactions. mPOS devices will benefit small business owners as they are said to cost less than this, making them more attractive to smaller traders.

“Although the official prices have not been released for the South African market, we're confident the solution will be much cheaper.

"In the US, the software has been adopted for a period of a year now and costs between $10 and $20,” he says.