A Wizard called Wizzit

 With all due respect to Harry Potter, wizardry isn’t always found at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft. Take a look at South Africa’s newest bank, Wizzit.  A virtual bank launched  in 2005 by a group of local entrepreneurs, it has no branches of its own. Its customers use their mobile phones to transfer money, purchase pre-paid electricity vouchers, buy airtime for a pre-paid mobile phone and a host of other services.

As a recent GTF story explains, the bank appeals to the 40 % of the local population who don’t have a bank account or those low-income workers with accounts who can spend an hour getting to a bank, an hour in a queue and an hour going home just to make a deposit or withdrawal. Thanks to the wizardry of the mobile phone, Wizzit customers can now do all this by text message and for substantially less than traditional banks charge.

Not a topic worthy of a blockbuster movie, perhaps, but surely just as magical.