Benzinga | Oct 11, 2021 09:03AM EDT

Usio Wins Contract To Provide Prepaid Payments Infrastructure To Support Houston's COVID-19 Vaccine Incentive Program, No Terms Disclosed

Usio, Inc: (NASDAQ:USIO), a leading FinTech integrated payment solutions provider, today announced the contract it was awarded by the Houston Health Department to provide the prepaid card issuing platform underlying the mayor's recently initiated Vaccine Incentive Program to vaccinate an additional 20,000 city residents has reached its capacity. Under this program, the city provided those who get a first dose of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine, or the one-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine, at an eligible health department site a $100.00 prepaid card. Prepaid cards valued at $50.00 were awarded for second doses of Pfizer or Moderna vaccine.

"This program was a success and a worthwhile investment that benefits everyone by helping to increase the city's vaccination rate, ultimately savings lives," said Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner. "Even with the gift card incentive program at capacity, it is still vital that more of us get vaccinated to protect ourselves and our loved ones from serious illness and death."

Louis Hoch, President and Chief Executive Officer of Usio, said, "We are very grateful to Mayor Turner and the Houston City Council for their decision to implement Usio's proprietary payments technology for this very important program. Through our extensive experience providing payments solutions for the various civic initiatives of cities large and small across the United States, we have been able to develop innovative technology that can be customized to each organizations' unique needs. Consequently, we are able to provide Houston an efficient, cost-effective solution that optimizes their decision to utilize prepaid debit cards as the disbursement vehicle for their Vaccines Incentive Program."

Houston Frost, Senior Vice President of Corporate Development and Prepaid Products, added, "Like Louis, I want to thank Houston's mayor and City Council for choosing Usio for this prestigious program. Since the onset of the pandemic, we have provided the payments technology responsible for disbursing funds for over 150 charitable, civic, and other economic assistance programs. Relative to virtually every other option, our prepaid programs provide a more convenient, easy-to-use electronic payment solution offering better reporting, tracking and other benefits. As a result, this is not only advantageous to the City of Houston but is a disbursement format that is preferred by card recipients as well."

The Houston program is part of Usio's industry-leading vaccine incentive disbursement solution. More information can be found by visiting https://www.akimbocard.com/vaccine-incentives/