24 Apr Points Africa TV3 Interview

Interviewer: Gain some points so you get extra money to buy any other thing you are thinking of for the future. Well, that’s the conversation we want to have this morning and I’m joined in the studio by Patrice, Mr. Patrice Amagashi. He speaks for Points Africa.

Patrice: Yes, madame.

Interviewer: Good morning to you, sir. Thank you for joining us.

Patrice: Pleasure. Great to see you.

Interviewer: I also do have with me Mr. Andrew McBurnett who is the Chief Executive Officer at Points Africa. Good morning to you as well.

Andrew: Thank you guys. I’m very well thank you. How are you yourself?

Interviewer: Good. Good. Great. So really, I’ve just said something little about Points Africa but for the person who doesn’t know much about it, what would you want to say about your company? Andrew there.

Andrew: Sure. Yeah. Points Africa, we’re a new loyalty program here in Ghana. Essentially, we’re focused on extending the spending power of the everyday Ghanaian. So, as you shop for your groceries, fuel, shop online, you’re rewarded with points and then you can use those points anywhere across the network that we’ve built. So, effectively, you can shop at Melcom, earn points there. You can fuel up at Star Oil, you can shop online at Jumia, get insurance from Glyco, go to places like Starbucks, Shala Cafe, and a bunch of other places also. Earn those points and then you could use those points for free things like airtime, data, go back to Melcom, get free groceries, go back to Star Oil, fuel up for free, etc. So, it’s basically rewarding your everyday spending as a consumer.

Interviewer: Sounds interesting. But I’ve been to some shops where I know whilst I’m shopping I’m getting points, but it seems the points are negligible. So, really, how huge is this one for me to be excited?

Andrew: Yeah. Well, the challenge with that is that usually you only get the points from that one place, right? So therefore you can only spend the points at that one place. With Points Africa, you can actually go across our network of key brands—shop at Melcom, fuel up at Star, shop online at Jumia—and then you can use the points across our network, and we have 60 plus partners across the country. So rather than just one place, you can shop across our network. And it’s pretty simple. You can actually use the Momo app. If you’ve got the Momo app, go into Momo, you can slide across on the “buy” section, click on Points Africa, and then shop as you do today, earn those points, and then when you’ve gotten enough points, you can redeem those points again for free things like airtime and data.

Interviewer: Okay. So Amagashi, for the ordinary person, explain to me.

Patrice: So the point is you have a phone. In fact, you have two phones, as I can see. Just go online and then download the Points Africa app. It’s an app on your phone. So either you’re using Apple or you’re using Android, you can get it from the Play Store or the App Store. So just download the app and then there you go. Simple. That’s all. Anytime you’re shopping, you shop using the app because they are partners. So there’s a link between the two of us. So anytime you shop, just shop and then that’s all.

Interviewer: How do the points work? If I realize one of the places is Star Oil, for instance. If I choose to go to Star Oil to fill up my tank and from there I’m going to Melcom to shop, assuming I have insurance with Glyco… the points, how do they work? Will I have to use the points at Glyco for Glyco only or it accumulates?

Patrice: No. It’s an aggregate of all the points. So you can use it anywhere, anytime based on your discretion. Think about us being your points wallet. Basically, you’re being rewarded. It’s being put into your points wallet and then you can use it from those points anywhere across our network.

Interviewer: Okay? So, at which point do I start earning?

Patrice: Right now, the moment you download. Just download it. Just go online. I’m daring you to download and I’m going to dash you some points. I’m going to dash you 5,000 points.

Interviewer: Okay. 5,000 points. 5,000 points would translate into what in terms of a shopping voucher?

Patrice: Download the app, I’ll do that. But I want you to see it so that you can report it. Like I said, I’m giving you 5,000 immediately.

Interviewer: 5,000 points will translate into how much in vouchers?

Patrice: A lot of money. You can get definitely free data and airtime. You can definitely get good vouchers going into Melcom. You can buy food at Melcom.

Interviewer: Okay. And for those who… you also talked about Momo, how does Momo also work?

Andrew: Yeah. So with Momo, you can go into the app. If you’ve got the Momo app, you can log in right now. Slide across in the “buy” section. You see Points Africa within there and you see all of the offers. You see all of what we call “earn” offers or “redemption” offers where you can spend your points. And within the app, as soon as you use that, you’re able to get points from Momo as well as points from all participating partners.

Interviewer: Okay. So, if I’m a Momo user, as long as I’m using the app, either transferring or receiving, I’m already gaining points because I’m using your app.

Andrew: Yes, that’s it.

Interviewer: If you can tell us why you chose the outlets that you’ve chosen—Melcom, Star Oil, Glyco.

Patrice: It’s not about choosing it. It’s just about identifying the lifestyle of Ghanaians and knowing where people like to shop and what they want to do. So, we are getting more people on. So if you have any company that you have or a friend who has a company and they get a lot of people patronizing, so long as you are purchasing something, we are with you. We are collecting people along the way. The same way as Momo came in and many people were like “what is Momo?”, today it’s one of the most popular payment points. That is exactly what Points Africa is going to be. It’s going to be your wallet, as Andrew said, that you’re going to be walking around with. So now anytime you want to buy something, you’re using Points Africa. So the earlier you join, the better.

Interviewer: Mr. McBurnett, where do you see things going in the next few years?

Andrew: Yeah. I mean we’re called Points Africa. We chose Ghana for a specific reason—fantastic environment from a fintech perspective, also mobile money. We’re growing across the continent. We’re growing next into Nigeria, West Africa, East Africa. But our focus right now is Ghana, growing our network in terms of different participating partners. And over the next few months, you’ll see us everywhere. So, think of us being your rewards wallet. As you shop, you’re rewarded. And then as you shop and you get those points, you can use those points anywhere.

Interviewer: You can use in 30 seconds your final word. We’re done.

Patrice: One key thing about the app is that you never run out of data. You never run out of airtime because at any given point in time, you have accumulated points. Anytime you just have one minute remaining, all you need to do is go into your points. With Points Africa, you never run out of points.Interviewer: You never run out of points. Thank you very much, Mr. Patrice Amagashi who speaks for Points Africa and of course as well to you Mr. Andrew McBurnett who is the Chief Executive Officer of Points Africa. Thank you gentlemen for joining us and for telling us about this so we can earn whilst we shop.