09 Oct 2016

New innovations continue to penetrate market and form an integral part of the lives of Batswana.

i-Serve managing director, Mr Tumelo Pule, decided to pioneer one of the first technologies by introducing the prepaid self-service and advertising kiosk.

The youth entrepreneur, who hails from Kanye, said the machine that operated by network connectivity was configured to provide services such as sale of airtime (for all local networks and South Africa) and soon he will launch sale of cross-border bus tickets.

Mr Pule revealed that negotiations with the bus-liners were wrapped up and the parties were working on synchronising the pricing of tickets in the machine to match the various currency rates that would be involved.

Moreover, he explained that the kiosk had an advertising screen that served as a digital billboard; a platform tailored for small businesses that could only afford a low advertising budget.

“My ultimate goal is to inspire and help develop other youth owned small businesses,” he said.

When promoting the customised machine at one of the local shopping malls at CBD in Gaborone, Mr Pule further explained that the machine can be configured to provide services such as bill payment for water, electricity, transport fines, train tickets, internet vouchers, subscriptions and sending & receiving money.

Furthermore, on how the machine operates, he illustrated that it’s programmed to use coins from P0.50, P1, P2 and P5 and tendered notes from P20, P50, P100 and P200.

The machine also gives out change and it has a power back-up system for when there are power cuts. He described the machine as user friendly because it instructs the customer what to do.

He also pointed out that with the existence of the prepaid self-service and advertising kiosk, productivity can continue even after working hours.

That is; people can continue with daily job duties and pay bills after working hours.

He said the distribution centre also acts as a queue management device and allows for easy, convenient service provision and collection.

“Having worked in a customer-oriented set-up like a cellphone network providing company and the call centre, I used to put myself in their shoes and imagined what kind of service I would like if someday I wasn’t the service provider. Then I came up with this concept,” he said.

Noticeably enthused he emphasised on what motivated his business idea.ENDS