Another potential major player in the African mobile money market has received serious financial backing. African fintech pawaPay has announced that it has secured $9 million in a seed funding round.
SoftBank Vision Fund’s first investment in an African start-up has been announced – and it’s a big one for fintech company OPay.
Last month, we reported that Angolan operator Unitel was preparing to launch a mobile money offering. Now, Unitel Money has gone live.
Targeting in particular the 1.7 billion consumers that it says have joined the world’s middle class in the past decade, most of them in emerging markets, fintech Boku has launched M1ST (Mobile First), which it calls the world’s largest mobile payments network.
Hard on the heels of yesterday’s announcement that Sanlam and telecoms giant MTN Group are to distribute Sanlam Group insurance and investment products across Africa comes news that microinsurance fintech aYo has partnered with MTN to launch insurance for all Ivorians – and Sanlam will be involved.
CAMPOST, the national provider of postal and financial services in Cameroon, and VYZYO, a mobile financial services technology company, have signed a commercial partnership agreement to deploy and operate digital payment and mobile financial services throughout Cameroon.
The mobile money bandwagon continues to gather pace in Africa. Local press reports indicate that leading Angolan operator Unitel is about to launch a service called Unitel Money.
The Bank of Tanzania (BOT) has granted its approval in principle for Cellulant Corporation to operate as a Payment Solution Service Provider (PSSP) in Tanzania.
MFS Africa, which describes itself as Africa’s largest payment gateway, has announced its entry into Sierra Leone, partnering with Afrimoney, the mobile money service offered by pan-African telecommunications company Africell.
Pan-African fintech firm Carbon has entered a strategic five-year partnership with Visa to provide its customers with digital and physical Visa payment cards.
Government efforts to use the success of popular communications services as a source of new tax income have continued. The latest example is a reported 10 percent tax on the earnings of mobile money agents in Ghana.
PLDT’s digital unit Voyager Innovations has secured investment worth $167 million to help it expand into financial services via a new digital bank.
A new report on digital transformation in the Brazilian banking sector will no doubt make interesting reading for mobile operators as it shows what looks like an inexorable rise in consumer take-up of mobile banking.
The Angolan minister of economy and planning, Sérgio Santos, has apparently invited the Kenyan mobile operator Safaricom to invest in the country.
The restrictions on offering mobile money services that have been a condition of the recent licence applications in Ethiopia have occasioned a lot of comment. Now Kenya's president has got involved.
South Africa’s number three operator is claiming an African first. Telkom says it has launched Africa’s first virtual card for transacting on WhatsApp, enabling Telkom Pay customers to make e-commerce payments.
Connectivity, rather than established customer relationships, is the key to the future growth of financial services and inclusivity in emerging markets.
Ethio Telecom’s new mobile money service Telebirr apparently registered over one million users in the week after its launch. Now, according to some reports, registrations have passed the three million mark.
Mondia Pay, part of leading mobile commerce company Mondia, and mobile money service M-Pesa have partnered to allow Tanzanians to conveniently access Mondia’s suite of online content on the Vodacom Tanzania digital services network.
Underlining the growth of the mobile payment business across Africa, operator MTN has announced a $2 million partnership with the International Finance Corporation (IFC) to expand its mobile money business – called MoMo – in South Africa.
The leading Kenyan mobile operator – and mobile money pioneer – Safaricom has had a tough year during the pandemic, suffering its first profit decline in a decade. Could a deal with online retail giant Amazon provide a welcome revenue boost?
As expected, Ethiopia's state telecoms monopoly, Ethio Telecom, has launched a mobile money service with the aim of boosting growth by offering cashless transactions.
WhatsApp money transfer is back on track in Brazil. The Facebook-owned messaging service relaunched its person-to-person money transfer services in Brazil early this week.
Operator MTN Rwanda has received approval from the country's Central Bank to set up a fintech subsidiary, Mobile Money Rwanda Ltd.
The Philippine Bank of Communications (PBCOM) has gone live with Temenos’ next-generation core banking Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) to offer a digital-first service in the Philippines.
Brazilian operator Telefônica Brasil, known as Vivo, has announced the launch of Vivo Pay, which is described as a fully digital account that allows for banking transactions directly through an application.
Ethio Telecom, the – for now – monopoly telecommunications provider in Ethiopia, has announced the roll-out of a mobile money service.
Somalia’s largest telecommunications provider, Hormuud Telecom, has announced the rollout of the country’s first indigenous mobile money application.
Brazilian operator Oi has announced the launch throughout Brazil of Oi Conta Zap, a digital bank account managed through the WhatsApp messaging application.
Yet another initiative to increase the reach of the cashless society has been announced – this time in Sri Lanka.
Cash is probably not going to disappear anytime soon in Africa, but a growing number of digital finance initiatives – including two recently announced in Kenya and Nigeria – may help to accelerate the process.
Global payments company Mastercard and Saudi fintech business Geidea have announced a strategic partnership agreement to accept Mastercard payments for Tap on Phone solutions in Saudi Arabia. This is claimed to be the first such agreement to be signed in the Middle East and North Africa.
Zimbabwean financial services provider First Capital Bank has announced the launch of Alisa, a WhatsApp banking chatbot, bringing together machine learning and cognitive computing technologies to provide customers and clients with various banking services.
The global drive to encourage digital payment continues – this time with an announcement from Sri Lankan operator SLT-Mobitel that its mobile money arm mCash has partnered with payments solution giant Visa.
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