SA tech firm targets Zim

FORUS, a South African tech company behind a new public utility block chain payment platform, has partnered Zimbabwe Stock Exchange listed health, hygiene, beauty and pharmaceutical products company, Medtech, to launch its global digital exchange in Zimbabwe.

The platform is an ecosystem that will facilitate mobile and web-based transacting, drive financial inclusion and access to capital for small businesses.

The solution is aimed at providing a single, global, universal, trusted, user-authentication platform for both mobile and web-based transactions, for the banked and the unbanked.

FORUS, which was made by South African engineers, is set for global launch in South Africa, the USA, the Caribbean as well as Zimbabwe in March this year.

While the platform is a multi-function system, founder Sonny Fisher, said the digital platform rivalled established global payment systems, such as Visa and MasterCard, but was also tailor-made for sensitivity to the need to address financial challenges of the poor (small business) while enabling real time transacting globally.

Mr Fisher said the traditional banking model was not designed to address the needs of Africa or the world’s poorest citizens, hence challenges in securing finance, but FORUS’ (pronounced FOR-US) block chain technology incorporates a whole suite of financial services and will sign up a range of partners for cross-cutting transacting.

For signed up members who access low interest working capital loans for their small enterprises, the system has real time functionality compatible with artificial intelligence that allows monitoring and interventions to ensure beneficiaries meet set targets.

The project has already been rolled out in the United States, where the poor people face predominantly similar challenges in financial transacting and access to finance as in Africa, the Caribbean and South Africa. Mr Fisher said the next port of call was Zimbabwe. The system is an open platform that can be used by anyone including banks for the purpose of providing liquidity to customers.

Like in South Africa, FORUS – an acronym for Free, Open, Real-time, Ubiquitous and Secure – seeks to achieve financial inclusion for the poorest and most neglected communities in Zimbabwe by offering a solution that has been developed to enable the alleviation of poverty.

FORUS platform will also help build a generative economy, creation of sustainable return for the investors whilst simultaneously generating sustainable capital returns for communities using the technology.

Mr Fisher said the objective was to build sustainable small businesses, since GDP growth in Africa will not come from large firms.

“So what will do is sign up large member organizations, tribal associations, burial societies and third parties and that is a great way to get people on to the platform,” he said. “Our branches are out in the communities and that is far more competitive than banks.”

Mr Fisher said following the advent of cloud computing, it was now easy to use the block chain technology to deliver a host of financial services to people and at the same time reduce the cost of doing business. FORUS has started signing up people, organisations (banks, retailers and merchants) and institutions (such as churches) for an eco-system that will enable everyone to transact.

Individuals would first make a small payment that gives them shares in the organisation and against which they would be able to borrow up to a prescribed thresholds, for instance to stock up their businesses, but without necessarily getting hold of the actual cash.

The model also entails organising targeted communities into groups with common characteristics and helping them overcome their financial challenges through access to large suppliers.

FORUS will be looking to enable access to a host of financial services for millions of people previously excluded from the formal economy. Users will have a credit card for which no fees will be charged apart from a 3 percent administration charge on transactions.

The payment functionality will be made available to all banks, financial institutions, merchants, application developers, and corporate enterprises, and will allow anyone who is registered to use this free payment gateway with a built-in advertising platform.

The solution will offer functionalities that include free e-wallet for secure, real-time micro-payments anywhere, anytime– E-commerce payment facility for small businesses (informal) shops via any device, enable paying or receiving of funds from anyone, anywhere, anytime for free.

Further, members will hold shares in an internationally listed company, access to low-interest loans, funding/financing for capital and businesses and affiliation to clubs for pooling of collateral for large-scale funding. All funds will be fully insured and underwritten.

The FORUS business model uses the distributed ledger technology of the FORUS Core platform, coupled with revenue generated through advertising, loyalty, and group buying discounts to develop a revenue stream for the entire ecosystem.

A percentage of revenue is thus returned, in real time, to the community.–herald