MANZINI– Customers travelling from Manzini to Nhlangano, Shewula, Lavumisa and Lomahasha will have it easy with MoMo Pay.
This follows a first-of-its kind partnership between MTN Fintech and Phinduvuke Bus Service, which commenced on Monday.
MoMo Pay is a cashless method that allows customers to pay for goods and services using Mobile Money through their mobile devices.
Phinduvuke bus service is joining over 20,000 outlets nationwide which have registered to receive payment for their goods and services through Mobile Money.
The bus service is owned by the Jwanki family and has a fleet of 11 buses trading under the style names Mayville, Imbabala, Khulumezakho, Emakhonkhosi and Phinduvuke.
Their buses are currently servicing five routes, namely, Mbabane-Nhlangano, Manzini-Nhlangano, Manzini-Lomahasha, Manzini-Shewula and Manzini-Lavumisa.
The partnership was endorsed on Monday at the Manzini bus rank where the MTN Fintech Eswatini team placed retail codes stickers on some of the buses to mark the commencement of the deal. Customers will simply pay their bus fares by sending Mobile Money to the unique retail codes assigned to each bus.
The team led by FinTech CEO Sam Shongwe, FinTech team and the Phinduvuke team among others was at the bus rank to launch the first-of-its kind relationship where customers can now pay for their bus fares via MoMoPay, delighting passengers, vendors and members of the public.
Shongwe highlighted that, “As we strive to position MoMo as a convenient and safe payment method, MTN FinTech continues to focus on expanding its partnership with the different business segments in country to extend this service to emaSwati. The transport business is one of the key players in the country to drive the economy by facilitating movement across the country. As FinTech we are happy to participate in the space to drive payments convenience.”
Phinduvuke Administration Manager Thembi Jwankie said in less than 24 hours they already had an impressive response.
“Between yesterday (Monday) and today (Tuesday) we had a number of passengers who made payments using MoMo Pay, especially in the Lomahasha and Shewula routes,” she said.
Among the advantages Jwankie highlighted a relief with change, which she said they always struggled with, especially in the mornings and around month end when people had plenty cash at their disposal.
She said this platform will enable parents to pay for their children’s bus tickets without having to be present physically.
“We have daily, weekly and monthly tickets which parents normally buy for students. We also have people who hire our buses and pay using EFT. Now all these people can just pay using MoMo.”
Jwankie said they decided to grab the opportunity after realizing that the number of people who are using Mobile Money was growing each day.
She said apart from ordinary individuals, the elderly citizens have MoMo accounts because their elderly grants were now payable via MoMo.
She assured that their bus staff was adequately trained and they would assist people when making payments.
