Phones are reshaping banking and payments in the smartest way

When I was younger, I was the kid who thought he was at the cutting edge of technology if he could get the timer record function on the family video recorder to work properly and reliably.

- Stephen Grootes

And for added points, I was even able to use the “simulcast” function, which let me record sound from a Radio 2000 programme playing on an FM radio to a video tape, meaning my mom could watch Remington Steele in English. (The sight of a future James Bond in Pierce Brosnan speaking Afrikaans might be jarring to many now).

I have come to realise that the technical frontier has moved a lot since then. Now, it’s all about how to use your phone in the cheapest and most effective way possible.

For the networks, it’s all about making sure they're at the cutting edge. And although it may seem simple, it’s not. You have to play in the phone space and financial space. The overlap between what we used to know as banks that would facilitate financial transactions and networks that provided phone calls is growing dramatically.

Vodacom’s results, which were released on Monday, 11 May, display some of these transitions quite nicely. Its financial service revenue was up nearly 20%; it’s now close to R19-billion out of a total of nearly R168-billion, or just more than 10%. And I suspect this percentage is going to grow quickly.