Samuel Mungadze

Municipal services will soon be accessed through cellphones if the plan to use mobile technology to help service delivery by a small Durban-based technology company succeeds.

Home Grown Business Integration believes cash-strapped municipalities across the country can increase their revenue collections, reduce debt levels and roll out more services if they move to cloud-based revenue and sales management systems.

Thaisi Shale, who heads Home Grown, said his company was negotiating with several municipalities across the country to install a revenue-management system, Lehalima, which gives remote communities access to pre-paid electricity, water, rates and airtime through their cellphones.

Lehalima, which means “lighting” in Sesotho, was initially designed for prepaid electricity, but has now evolved to service other utilities and services for many homes and businesses. Clients buy their electricity services from designated selling points or through a free cellphone application, which is linked to Home Grown’s data centre at SmartXchange in Durban.

“Using the system, we can sell electricity to any selling point anywhere in the country, or the world for that matter, as long as they have an internet connection,” said Shale.

Home Grown said it had been able to boost its service offering and reach dramatically since being selected as one of the beneficiaries of Microsoft’s R500m BBBEE investment, which aims to grow local software development companies.

Kethan Parbhoo, Equity Equivalent Investment Lead at Microsoft SA, believes that with most of Home Grown’s solutions being web-enabled, the company can deliver its solutions anywhere in the developing world, a clear example of how local small businesses can compete in providing world-class innovative solutions.

samuelm@thenewage.co.za