Mondex technology to launch in Africa

The Eastern and Southern African Trade and Development Bank (PTA Bank) has bought the franchise rights for Mondex to help create the foundation for financial infrastructure development in Africa.

According to PTA Bank, it has chosen Mondex - the electronic cash technology developed by MasterCard - as the standard for e-cash because it offers unique advantages, including multi-currency online and offline transactions.

The software also allows the transfer of cash between smartcards, without the need to centrally record each transaction - a function, which the bank claims, will remove the need to implement expensive traditional infrastructure. The cards can also carry up to five different currencies at once.

PTA Bank is jointly owned by the governments of 17 African countries, including Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Zimbabwe and the Sudan. The first Mondex implementation will be a cross-border launch between three, as yet, unnamed nations.