Johannesburg, South Africa: South African Elon Musk, who co-founded
PayPal at the end of the last century, has made the Time 100 list.
Musk is included in the “Thinker” section in the annual Time 100 issue
in which it names the “people who most affect our world”. In Iron Man
director Jon Favreau's write-up for the magazine, he writes that he
sat down with Musk when “trying to bring the character of genius
billionaire Tony Stark to the big screen, in Iron Man”.

Musk was born 38 years ago, in SA, to a South African engineer and a
Canadian mother, who works as a New York City dietician and model,
according to Wikipedia. The online encyclopaedia says his father
inspired his love of technology. Musk bought his first computer at 10,
and then taught himself how to programme.

By the age of 12, he had made his first software sale, selling a
space game called Blastar, for $500. Favreau describes Musk as a
“rocket scientist” as he designed the Falcon 9 booster that may serve
as the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's next vehicle to
transport cargo and humans into space.

“Even Elon's humble beginnings are not so humble. The little Internet
start-up that put him on the map is called PayPal. You may have heard
of it... Elon is a paragon of enthusiasm, good humour and curiosity –
a Renaissance man in an era that needs them,” writes Favreau.
Musk co-founded X.com, an online financial services and e-mail
payments company, in 1998. Two years later, it merged with Confinity,
originally formed to send money between Palm Pilots.

In February 2001, X.com became PayPal, before being bought by eBay for
$1.5 billion the following year. In March, First National Bank brought
PayPal to SA, making the country the 19th in which PayPal has a
presence.

Musk is currently CEO of Tesla Motors, which he invested into in 2004.
The high-performance electric motor car company has also attracted
attention from Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page, who have
also invested in the company.

M-Payment: Visa Joins Bandwagon for Mobile Phone Banking
Visa International is seeking opportunities to ally with mobile money
transfer service providers in Kenya rather than open new trails.

Mobile money transfer services in the African country is one of the
highest in the world, and it has introduced the otherwise unbanked
population to a wide array of financial services.

At present, Visa has two million card clients in Kenya and it has no
plans of slowing down in the advent of the unprecedented expansion of
mobile banking. Visa Sub-Saharan Africa Charles Niehaus tagged mobile
banking as an opportunity. “We are therefore focusing on how we can
align with them to further improve our services. So far we are working
on various programs together,” he says in a statement.

Niehaus says they are working on strategies aimed at linking their
solutions to the mobile phone money transfer platforms and implement
such services like opening up cross border remittance corridors which
are limited in domestic schemes.

“Unlike mobile money transfer services, Visa has an advantage of
enjoying global presence with its money transfer solution,” he added.
Mobile phone money transfer services have made it easier for many
people who were unbanked to enter into the banking space. Visa is
exploring ways for getting into mobile money transfer services
business to merge informal and formal payments systems.

“Kenya is one of the many countries around the world facing the
challenge of how best to bring unbanked individuals into the formal
banking system,” he articulates. Visa products can promote
transparency and accountability, reduce transaction costs and decrease
the size of the gray or informal economy, all of which helps to
stimulate economic and employment.

Niehaus says that use of cards could significantly help a country to
grow its economy. “Through the research that we have undertaken over
the past, we have realized that 10-percent increase in electronic
payment can grow gross domestic product (GDP) by one percent,” he
claims, adding that electronic payments are critical when developing a
strong, modern economy.

 

 

 

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