SmartSwitch Namibia (Proprietary) Limited was established in 2005.  The Namibian Switch was set up to implement and facilitate a UEPS smart card based switching and settlement system in Namibia, with Net1 and NamPost (Namibia Post Limited) each owing 50% stake in the Switch. 

NamPost, as the first customer of the switch, positioned itself to increase its market share in the financial service arena as the leading player in serving the un-banked and under-banked citizens of Namibia.  The project involved the migration of Namibia Post Limited (NamPost) Savings Bank Account customers from their original banking system (Globus) to the SmartSwitch Namibia platform.  This included the phasing out of passbooks, which resulted in the elimination of human error and fraud. NamPost has a UEPS smart card client base of approximately 300,000 card holders. 

The rollout to NamPost’s 120 service branches and merchant stores was implemented during the period November 2005 to January 2006. 

In addition to regular banking transactions of depositing and withdrawing funds to and from their savings accounts, NamPost cardholders can perform 3RD Party Payments, Money Transfers and the purchase of Prepaid Airtime and Electricity at Post Office branches.  NamPost card holders also have the availability to perform the following transactions at participating merchant stores outside of the normal banking hours providing “Branchless Banking”:  purchasing of goods, money transfer cash withdrawals, the purchase of Prepaid Airtime and Electricity and 3RD Party Payments. 

In the first half of 2009, SmartSwitch Namibia was awarded the business of distributing government pension payments to beneficiaries on behalf of the GIPF (Government Insurance Pension Fund).  The project went “LIVE” commencing with smart card registrations taking place from October 2009.  Pension payments to these cards are expected to commence at the end of April 2010.  An initial 30,000 client smart cards ordered with an additional 10,000 currently in card production at Net1. 

NamPost latest project ready for implementation is the issuing of tourist smart cards to all tourists visiting Namibia with the objective to load electronic funds to the smart card for day to day spending.