Google Launches a Prepaid Transit Card

• Google proposes a new physical payment service, dubbed “Beba”. This NFC prepaid card enables its cardholders to pay for transit throughout the Nairobi bus network.

• This service is free of charge and only requires a Gmail account for card activation.

• Customers can purchase and top-up their card at local agents within a 115 US dollars limit for card payments. Account management and access to transaction history are possible at Beba.co.ke.

• To make a payment, the cardholder simply shows his card to the bus driver who disposes of an NFC-enabled mobile phone. He then gets his receipt by SMS.

Source: Finextra

• The “Beba” card especially addresses two issues: first, remedy the behaviour of some unscrupulous bus drivers (randomly cashing fare hikes to their personal account), second, provide the unbanked population with a means to access a dematerialised payment service in the transportation networks.

• This is yet another move from Google to step in the means of payments market. The Web giant intends to propose a range of solutions likely to fit in the physical market, as other pure Internet players do, including eBay or Facebook for example.

• Underbanking in Africa is a major issue: mobile telecom operators (m-Pesa, Orange Money, etc.) have very well understood it and are particularly active in issuing financial services based on the significant local equipment in mobile devices. NFC-enabled cell phones may then replace contactless sensors in the transportation network. There again, Kenya leads in the field on innovation.