Its services are based on the use of mobile phones for accessing bank accounts and conducting transactions, in addition to a Maestro debit card that is issued to all customers upon registration.
Launched in 2004, Wizzit is formally a division of the South African Bank of Athens but its brand is owned and its operations are run by a group of independent entrepreneurs.
Wizzit has also partnered with Dunns, a fashion retailer focusing on lower to middle-income customer segments[8] that acts as an agent for opening accounts The company maintains a policy of only recruiting unemployed people,[9] which it has integrated into its promotion strategy: Because marketing costs represent one of the biggest financial challenges to its business,[1] Wizzit does not use mass media advertisements but relies instead on so-called WIZZkids—previously unemployed individuals that the company certifies to become sales agents.
[11] Wizzit aims at partnering with either existing banks or microfinance institutions (MFIs) in the countries it intends to expand to,[12] a strategy it has been testing with Beehive, a South African MFI.
[13] Wizzit has also been planning to acquire merchants as agents in South Africa's rural areas, where the majority of its potential customers reside and where there is only an underdeveloped payments infrastructure available, such as ATMs and POS devices.