payD nominated for GSMA Mobile World award

Local mobile-centric company, Oltio has announced that it has been nominated for the Best Mobile Money Innovation for its switch platform, payD, in the annual GMSA Global Mobile awards.

payD, which was launched in 2011 removes a significant obstacle to the mainstream adoption of e-commerce in South Africa by transforming a user’s mobile phone into a remote point of sale (POS) device. The technology is also used by Oltio parent company MTN for its Eazi Recharge pre-paid airtime top-up service which already has over 110,000 users.

The GSMA Global Mobile Awards are the most sought after in the global communications industry and more than 170 independent analysts, journalists, academics and subject matter experts throughout the world participated in the judging of the 2012 awards.

Says Oltio’s head of new business development, Dave Parratt: ‚Just being nominated is an honour for us. It is recognition that our commitment to innovation and in particular, making e-commerce accessible to more South Africans, is paying off.‚

We believe that payD has the ability to fundamentally change how consumers conduct online transactions and the more than 170 merchants who are already working with us using this platform, agree. ‚

‚Reflecting the intensity of competition and innovation across the mobile ecosystem, we saw a record 600 entries and an exceptionally high quality field of contenders vying for this year’s Global Mobile Awards,‚ said Michael O’Hara, Chief Marketing Officer, GSMA. ‚It is a significant achievement to have made the shortlist, and our warmest congratulations go to all the nominees announced today. We look forward to the unveiling of the winners at the Mobile World Congress next month.‚

Judges for the Best Mobile Money Innovation category looked at the following elements in judging the nominations:

– Genuinely innovative – that is different from other similar services deployed in the market

– Entry provides a seamless, simple to understand and use mobile-based commerce experience for users

– The product’s reliability, consistency and value to the user

– Availability in at least one mobile market

– Evidence of user take up

– Conformity to appropriate standards and regulatory codes of practice

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