Anecdotal evidence suggests that only 60% of donations made to developing nations actually reach the people they are supposed to help. But UK company Transaxiom presented at CARTES SECURE CONNEXIONS a method that aims to eliminate this loss. “The moment you hand over the cash, you have no idea what’s happening to it,” says Ram Banerjee, co-founder and director of Transaxiom. He believes that his company has come up with a method that ensures money is traceable, safe from fraud and does not require POS terminals or a network to operate. Money is electronically transferred on to smart cards and given to the people who need to buy food, tools, or other goods. Merchants can access this by downloading a simple app on to their mobile phones. At the point of purchase, the customer’s card is held against the merchant’s phone and the appropriate sum is transferred. When the merchant wants to ‘cash in’ these electronic funds, he goes online, transmits the aggregate sum from his telephone and the equivalent amount of cash is instantly deposited in his account. A trial of the system is underway in Canada and Transaxiom is bidding to have its system adopted by three East African aid schemes.
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