NFC Payment System for Non-Smartphones

Jonathan Gikabu of Equity Group Foundation in Kenya will incorporate near field communication (NFC) tags into low-cost mobile phones for secure mobile money payments. NFC tags enable short-range wireless communication between mobile phones and other devices for contactless and rapid mobile payments. They are commonly incorporated into smartphones, but these are too expensive for the average citizen in developing countries. He will assemble ultrathin NFC ferrite sheet antennas affixed to the back of SIM cards into inexpensive handsets, and analyze them for making payments and for security. In partnership with a leading mobile network operator in Kenya, he will then pilot test the phones on a group of local students for making purchases using virtual money via an NFC-compliant payment terminal set up at the university.