Broca will provide SMS-payments in Nigeria

Broca is to supply a pilot system based on its Secure Advanced Messaging Service (Sams) to Telnet Nigeria which will then be offered to banking clients in the country.

With the new service customers in Nigeria will be able to initiate cash transfers, pay for airtime and for satellite TV.

Broca’s Sams provides an absolutely secure SMS messaging service when sensitive banking details are sent across the network being verified and stored in a safely way.

The system is said to be very suitable for banking in developing nations like Nigeria on the score of its being based on text messaging instead of GPRS which is less common in the region.

According to the statement of Ian Price, the managing director for Broca, this pilot agreement provides the firms with "an important foothold in the African continent, where mobile commerce is growing at an impressive rate and which already has over 250 million mobile subscribers".

Among other mobile banking services opened in the African region is Vodafone’s M-Pesa mobile money transfer targeting the unbanked population in Kenya, MoneyBoxAfrica - an initiative promoted by Nigeria's Integrated Capital Service - teamed with German vendor paybox and one more mobile banking and payments platform provided by the UK m-banking outfit, Monitise, through a joint venture with Made In Africa.