Glossary of Terms
Participants - Beneficiaries and/or Vendors
Beneficiary - Program participant who receives aid in the form of e-voucher card (direct beneficiary).
Vendor - Program participant contracted by the NGO to sell goods and services to other participants in the cash transfer program (indirect beneficiary).
Community Focal Person - a trusted member of the community appointed by its leaders to be a contact person for the NGO and provide technical support.
NGO - Non-Governmental Organisation implementing the cash transfer program
Partner - Partner organisation assisting the NGO in implementation of the program
Enrolment - Process of registering program participants (beneficiaries and/or vendors) into the program.
The Sempo platform offers four core types of transactions Payments, Deposits, Withdrawals and Exchanges. These are described below:
Payment refers to a recipient making a payment at a vendor, or a vendor making a payment at a vendor.
Disbursement is a payment that refers to the NGO transferring funds from their digital wallet to a recipient or vendor digital wallet
Reclamation is a payment that refers to an NGO reclaiming funds from a recipients or vendors digital wallet to their digital wallet
Agent In is a payment that refers to recipient exchanging physical cash for funds in their digital wallet at a registered agent
Agent Out is a payment that refers to recipient sending a registered agent money for physical cash exchange
Incentive is a payment that refers to Sempo or an organisation sending funds to a user as a marketing promotion, incentive for cashing out or other incentivized actions.
Fee is a payment that refers to Sempo (or other) charging a payment fee for services.
Deposit refers to a user or organisation “on-ramping” or adding funds to their digital wallet from their local Fiat currency (e.g. Australia Dollars)
Withdrawal refers to a user or organisation “off-ramping” or withdrawing their funds for their local Fiat currency (e.g. Australia Dollars)
Exchange refers to a user or organisation exchanging a currency for another (i.e. United States Dollars for Australian Dollars)
What are the types of users on the Sempo Platform?
Admins - program administrators who have access to the Sempo platform
Participants - individuals who take part in a program. This includes Beneficiaries, Vendors, Agents and Group Accounts.
Participant role breakdown. Note, participants can have multiple roles and tiers assigned
Beneficiaries - beneficiaries are participants who are receiving a transfer (generally part of a humanitarian program). Beneficiaries have a lower level of KYC.
Vendors - vendors are participants who are offering goods and services on the Sempo platform in a program. Vendors have a higher level of KYC.
Cashier - cashiers are a subtype of vendors who are tied to a Vendor account. They cannot make outbound transfers to other users.
Agents - agents are a subtype of vendors who can exchange digital money for cash and vice-versa. These are participants who generally have a higher level of KYC and cash out other users.
Group Accounts - group accounts are participants and generally used as "Chama" accounts to pool savings and make loans.
AML (Anti-money Laundering) – A set of procedures, laws or regulations designed to stop the practice of generating income through illegal actions. These may include limits on the amount of money that can be held in a mobile wallet or limits on the number of transactions that a user can perform per month.
API (Application Program Interface) – A software intermediary that allows two applications to talk to each other. By using an API, companies can automate communications between databases and platforms.
Blockchain - Shared, public, immutable ledger that facilitates the process of recording transactions and tracking assets using internet technologies. Everyone can inspect it but no single user can control it. It is a distributed database that maintains a continuously growing list of transaction data records, cryptographically secured from tampering and revision.
Cryptocurrency (or Digital Currency)- Digital asset, means of exchange, which can facilitate transactions such as payments using digital technologies and devices
Ethereum, Ethereum blockchain - Decentralised open source blockchain infrastructure featuring smart contract functionality. Every participants's e-wallet account is mapped one-to-one to the Ethereum address.
KYC (Know Your Customer) - Process of collecting person's identification that the local regulator requires financial service providers (FSPs) to collect about any potential new customer in order to discourage financial products being used for money laundering or other crimes. In the program the Vendors are being KYC'ed when registering.
Stablecoin - Type of cryptocurrency designed to minimize the volatility of the price of the given currency, relative to some "stable" assets. A stablecoin can be pegged to a fiat currency, or to exchange-traded commodities.
Smart Contract - Set of rules (piece of code) stored on the blockchain and executed automatically to speed transactions. It can define conditions for transactions and control digital assets. It has properties of contractual agreement, but does not render legal contract.
USSD (Unstructured Supplementary Service Data) – sometimes referred to as "Quick Codes" or "Feature codes", is a communications protocol used by GSM mobile phones to communicate with mobile network operator's computers.
QR code - Quick Response code, a matrix barcode, which is a machine-readable optical label containing information about the item to which it is attached (e.g. identifier or tracker that points to a website or application).
