Broca announces m-banking and payments pilot in Africa

Broca has signed a pilot agreement with Telnet Nigeria Limited, a major IT solutions provider to the banking sector in Nigeria.

Under the terms of the partnership, Broca will provide a pilot service based on its flagship service Secure Advanced Messaging Service (SAMS) to Telnet Nigeria, which will then be offered to Telnet's banking clients across Nigeria.

Broca's innovative SAMS system offers an SMS messaging service which is totally secure, whether the message is in the handset or during transmission, allowing sensitive banking details to be sent across the network, verified and stored safely.

Broca claims that since SAMS, uniquely among advanced m-banking applications use SMS as its bearer, it is ideal for rapidly developing economies in parts of the world such as Africa where SMS is universal and where availability of other technologies such as GPRS can be more limited.

Telnet Nigeria, founded in 1985, will trial the technology with a number of its banking and payment clients in Nigeria, with applications including airtime vending, cash transfers and satellite TV payments.

“We are excited to sign a pilot agreement of this nature with a significant partner in Nigeria, offering us an important foothold in the African continent, where mobile commerce is growing at an impressive rate and which already has over 250m mobile subscribers,” says Ian Price, MD, Broca. “We are delighted to showcase the capability of our SAMS technology and look forward to developing a strong relationship with Telnet Nigeria and bringing new and improved services to the continent.”