A partnership between home-grown fintech-preneurs and leading retailer Game is set to help small businesses by transforming a cellphone into a secure mobile Point of Sale (mPOS) terminal.

These businesses will be able to process debit and credit cards, cash and mobile payments with an iKhokha device.

This low-cost payment system, developed by three Durban-based entrepreneurs, the father and son team Matt and Clive Putman, and close friend Ramsay Daly, rolled out into flagship Game stores across the country.

iKhokha managing director Matt Putman says iKhokha emerged from their realisation that larger institutions providing financial products and services often overlooked small and startup businesses.

The iKhokha device is a mobile card machine that allows anyone with a small business to accept debit and credit card payments. The only requirement is a cellphone signal. Transactions are charged at only 2,75% (excluding VAT) instead of the standard 3,5% that banks typically charge.

But Putman says their device is far more than just a cheap payment device.

“It provides the merchant with powerful information on their sales over time and empowers them to track and properly manage the finances of their growing enterprise.

“While cash payments can also be accepted, iKhokha eliminates the need for actual cash, which is expensive to handle, a security risk and harder to track.”

This South African developed and manufactured solution has been through rigorous international testing with regulatory bodies and card schemes to ensure world-class security.

iKhokha is a gold member of AlphaCode, a Rand Merchant Investments (RMI) club for fintech startup entrepreneurs.

RMI’s senior investment executive and head of AlphaCode, Dominique Collett, says: “We believe that the SME segment has been largely underserved by South African financial institutions.”