The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor TRANSFER Solutions Providers (TSP), the Mango card provider, yesterday said it was planning "within two-three months" to ramp up staff levels to 20-25 employees and open several retail outlets - including one at the Mall at Marathon - as it intensifies its focus on the 'unbanked' market. Harvey Morris, TSP's acting chief executive, told Tribune Business that after the company "scaled back" its plans late last year, placing international expansion on the backburner to focus on the Bahamas, it was poised to this week launch a new marketing campaign targeting its core 'unbanked' customers. TSP believes the size of the 'unbanked' Bahamian market could be as large as 75,000-80,000 customers, its current Mango card customer base being "a tad short of 10,000". Disclosing that Carmichael Road was also being eyed as a location for a Mango retail outlet, Mr Morris said the roll-out of the Bahamas Telecommunications Company's (BTC) fourth generation (4G) network was "very close" to allowing TSP to launch a Mobile App, which will permit Mango customers to make secure payments via SMS text messages from their cell phones. And, noting that Mango's expansion to overseas markets was still on the cards, albeit a year away, Mr Morris said: "I'm very confident that we're on the road to long-term success. "We're trying to get this restructuring going, and we are making good progress. We've really spent a lot of time rebuilding the marketing programmes, and you will see the ads coming out this week. "It's what we term a grassroots marketing programme targeted to our target audience. We are really starting to ramp that up. Expect to see some exciting things from Mango. We're really starting to increase our penetration of the unbanked, getting cards into their hands and getting them to start using us." The so-called 'unbanked' are Bahamas-based residents who do not use, or make minimal use, of banking and other traditional financial services forms. While data was relatively minimal, Mr Morris said the reports TSP had received, and information supplied by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), indicated that the Bahamian 'unbanked' market was "in that range" of 75,000-80,000 persons. "At least 50 per cent of the Bahamian population is unbanked. It is still a pretty big market, and we will go after our little share," Mr Morris said. "We're specifically targeting the unbanked, but also have some persons who are underbanked. Due to the cost of operating a regular bank account, they're opting to look at the convenience of our card." The Mango technology is based on a 'stored wallet' system that holds the consumer's money. The funds are then accessed using stored value cards, cell phones and via the Internet. Apart from providing increased efficiency and convenience when it comes to making payments, Mango is also designed to offer clients security by eliminating the need to carry large sums of cash around. Mr Morris, though, acknowledged that TSP needed to conduct a major customer education campaign if Mango was to take-off. "We're asking the market we are targeting to switch from cash to stored value cards, so what we're experiencing is exactly what happened in this region," he explained. "It's not uncommon at all. You have to go through a tremendous education process. Why should someone take a card if they do not understand the benefits? "Even the marketing we had to design for the project. We didn't want to have an existing marketing campaign for existing clientele, and make it fit what we are trying to do. We've designed a marketing plan, and you will see it roll-out in short order." TSP has engaged D'Arcy Rahming's company on the marketing aspect, Mr Morris saying he was "using a combination of social media and traditional media to get the message out, and you will start to see it this week". TSP/Mango, together with its shareholders and Board of Directors, were forced to alter their sights and strategy last year, after their $5.438 million private placement - offering outside investors a collective 30 per cent equity stake in the company - raised just $1.5 million or 28 per cent of the target. Raising this additional capital was critical to financing TSP/Mango's expansion into overseas markets, such as Haiti, Jamaica, the Dominican Republic and southern US. Failure to do forced the company to scale back and focus on the Bahamas, getting this market right before looking abroad once again. Employee levels back in 2011 were reduced to 15, a figure that has decreased further subsequently, Mr Morris confirmed. However, after taking a step back to grow and move forwards again, he added that TSP was set to increase staff yet again as its 'unbanked' market focus intensified. "We scaled the company back last year to do the restructuring," Mr Morris told Tribune Business. "We reduced the staff complement, and are at the point where we will start hiring again, with job increases, within the next two-three months. "I don't have a clear figure now, as I haven't actually put down a human resources plan yet, but I would say it will be back to at least 20-25 people. We're down to less than 15, but in three months we expect to be up to 20-25 employees with increased sales teams. We are confident." Mango will also have a more visible presence on New Providence's streets. "We're looking at opening a couple of retail outlets as well," Mr Morris revealed to this newspaper, "including one at the Mall at Marathon. "We're opening outlets to ensure clients have easy access to our services. We are looking at something on Carmichael Road, and there are a couple of others we are looking at. "All of that will take place within two-three months. The Mall at Marathon, we want to see that open in the space of two weeks, because we've already completed those lease negotiations. We're absolutely committed to make sure our clients get in touch directly with our staff whenever we need support, so we have to do locations like that to make them readily available." Mr Morris told Tribune Business that once Mango's 'unbanked' services were up and running, the company would bring in a new chief executive. "I'm only helping to create the foundation," he added. And the completed roll-out of BTC's 4G network infrastructure is also set to enable TSP/Mango to offer SMS text messaging payment services. "We are just waiting for BTC to complete implementation of 4G, and we will be very close to implementing that," Mr Morris explained. "The system is already working; it's just not ready to be deployed commercially. We've not rolled out product where we would end up blaming other parties for problems. Everything we roll out we are satisfied is ready for the market, so it can be sustained." Given that the majority of its 'unbanked' market use cell phones, BTC's 4G build-out is vital for Mango's prospects. Mr Morris said his company's technology platform was built to cater to payments from all phones, not just smart phones, and had all the required anti-money laundering and Know Your Customer (KYC) features built-in. Explaining the company's decision to lower its sights, Mr Morris told Tribune Business: "It's a painful story, but we think that because of our long-term goals it's the smart way to build the company. "We've maintained all our relationships in the markets overseas that we intend to go to. Everyone understands it's better to build-out here than go overseas. Overseas is still a year out, but we want to do a superb job in the Bahamas market. "We've spent a long time doing this, and I'm very confident we're on the road to success. It's not easy, but we were not afraid to step back when we realised we needed to stop something, and didn't forge ahead because we'd started the journey."