Extended load shedding is playing havoc on small business owners’ ability to trade countrywide, small retailers have had to shut shop temporarily or sometimes permanently as affording alternative power supply to continue trading is often out of their financial reach.

Customer purchasing behaviour is also shifting. adumo clients are reporting that customers are choosing more established shopping centres to shop at, when there is load shedding, as backup generators provide constant light as well as the ability to pay via card.

“One way to assist our client’s power shortage woes, is to provide flexible and affordable funding for the purchase of alternative power supplies,” says recently appointed COO, Tom Morrison. Clients who trade through the adumo point-of-sale (‘POS’) devices have the opportunity to use adumo Capital. “Instead of taking out a bank loan, which is paid monthly at a fixed instalment, at a certain interest rate, customers can apply for funding from adumo, based on their monthly sales through their POS. Paying off the loan is based on merchant’s monthly card sales, which provides flexibility and affordability. We believe this offering works in everyone’s favour as should the merchant receive higher monthly card sales, they will pay more of their loan, without penalty but if their cards sales are low, they are not contractually bound by an instalment they can’t afford that month".

POS devices are in themselves helpful when there is load shedding. Certain of the devices offer 8 hours of battery life and a back-lit screen, so merchants can continue to accept cards payments when there is no power. All adumo payment devices offer multi-network redundancy, which actively seeks an optimal connection to cell phone towers, considering that some tower batteries may not sustain the power down time. In addition, many of the offered devices offer Wi-Fi as well as ethernet options to remove the reliance on cell phone towers.

Morrison notes that their clients are not sitting on their hands regarding the power crisis. “Through the applications received from our capital product, we are recording an increase in funding requests for alternative power solutions for their businesses. Self-provisioning of power will most likely become the norm for business continuity in South Africa and with the current increasing interest rates, we are pleased to provide a funding solution that is affordable and flexible”.