Mobile Finance

Singapore-headquartered global payment platform Thunesand pan-African financial institution Ecobank Group signed an agreement on Wednesday to collaborate on enabling instant cross-border payments for individuals and businesses across Sub-Saharan Africa, starting in Togo.

Digicel Fiji and SPBD Microfinance Fiji, a microfinance institution focused on rural village women, announced on Monday they will collaborate to deliver SPBD's services to customers through Digicel’s MyCash mobile money platform.

The ups and downs of the payment service provision business, particularly in Africa, have been highlighted in two recent news stories: one involving expansion for SPAYZ.io and the other signalling the end of Pay U Kenya.

Ukrainian telco Kyivstar says it is partnering with Mastercard to create new financial services, boost uptake of digital payments, and develop a more stable financial services infrastructure to support all this using Starlink’s Direct-to-Cell (D2C) satellite service.

Orange Egypt has partnered with Egyptian online gold trading platform mnGm to launch what they say is the country’s first digital platform for gold trading services using mobile wallets.

Vietnam’s mobile money service is reportedly set for a major upgrade from pilot mode to full-fledged service that, among other things, will see transaction caps raised to ten times the current amount.

A scheduled upgrade to its M-Pesa mobile finance service, announced last week by Kenyan operator Safaricom, was successfully completed today. It has been described as the most significant upgrade of the M-Pesa platform since 2015.

Late last week, the Finance and Budgetary Control Committee of the National Assembly of Senegal adopted a bill taxing digital financial services, including mobile money transactions and merchant payments.

Saudi Arabian telco Zain KSA is set to make a play in the insurtech space via its financial investment arm, Al Sayra Holding Company, which has formed a JV with global insurance specialist Prevensure to buy a stake in Saudi-based brokerage firm Green Shield Insurance Brokers Ltd (GSIB).

Vodafone Oman and digital financial service platform developer Software Group said on Monday they have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to collaborate on developing digital financial services in Oman.

African digital payments network Onafriq said it has formed a strategic partnership with Visa to launch Visa Pay, a cloud-native Payments-as-a-Service platform designed to expand digital financial access across the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

Digital payments giant Visa has announced the launch of Visa Pay, a mobile solution that provides access to digital payments and account-to-account money movement, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

Orange has appointed Thierry Millet (pictured) as CEO of Orange Money Group, replacing Aminata Kane.

Service provider Orange Egypt says it has signed an exclusive money transfer partnership with Enjaz Payment Services, one of the largest fintech companies in Saudi Arabia and the Middle East.

Whish Money, a Lebanese fintech company, has collaborated with payments giant Mastercard to enable inbound and outbound remittance flows for consumers in Lebanon.

Alipay+, a global wallet gateway, and Kaspi.kz, the leading super app in Kazakhstan, say they have enabled international cross-border QR payment acceptance in Kazakhstan.

Airtel Money Africa, the mobile money arm of pan-African operator Airtel Africa, has announced an extended partnership with Africa’s largest mobile money payment service provider (PSP), pawaPay, to enable seamless cross-border payments for licensed international money transfer operators (IMTOs) across seven key Airtel Africa markets.

Lao Telecom’s fintech unit Lao Mobile Money – which operates the MmoneyX mobile wallet – has become a strategic business partner with Visa in a deal aimed at boosting digital payments and financial inclusion in Laos.

MTC Namibia has reportedly teamed up with Letshego Micro Financial Services to launch a pilot for a new mobile microlending platform that will provide instant loans to customers via their mobile phones.

Money transfer services continue to make headlines in Africa. This time it’s the turn of Zambia where Western Union, Zoona Transactions Zambia Limited and Chipper Cash have announced the launch of international money transfer services in the Chipper Cash app.

Orange Money Group has expanded its mobile money offering by introducing small loans, following a new partnership with financial services platform Jumo.

Digital commerce firm Network International is collaborating with Ghanaian fintech and mobile money aggregator Blu Penguin to provide mobile money transactions via Network’s N-Genius payment terminals.

Safaricom Ethiopia’s mobile money platform M-Pesa and Awash Bank announced on Monday they have signed a strategic partnership to roll out digital financial products, starting with an overdraft service that allows customers to complete M-Pesa transactions even when their wallet balance is low.

Payments technology company Flutterwave says it has recently secured a Payment Institution (PI) license from the Central Bank of West African States (BCEAO), positioning it to help businesses in Senegal scale by offering its full range of seamless digital payment services.

Airtel Money Tanzania says it is partnering with the Tanzania Cooperative Development Commission (TCDC) to expand digital financial services to thousands of farmers across the country.

China’s UnionPay International, a leading name in payment solutions, has announced that, starting this year, UnionPay cards issued by Vietnamese banks can be linked with Alipay and WeChat Pay, China's leading mobile payment platforms, through a partnership with UnionPay International.

African mobile money platform Wave Mobile Money says it has raised EUR 117 million (about US$138.2 million) in debt financing to advance what it describes as its mission of making affordable, user-centric financial services accessible to everyone.

South African telco MTN said on Tueday that its API marketplace Chenosis is partnering with TransUnion Africa to launch a solution that uses mobile phone call data records (CDRs) to assess credit scores for people seeking access to financial services.

MTN Uganda announced plans on Wednesday to hold an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) on July 2 to discuss and vote on the proposed spinoff of its mobile money and fintech business, MTN MoMo, from its core telecoms operations.

TerraPay, a global money movement company, has partnered with Wave Mobile Money, a mobile money provider, in what is described as a strategic move to enhance cross-border remittance services in West Africa – and specifically Mali.

Digicel Pacific announced on Wednesday that it has launched a ‘Pacific Transfers’ service for its MyCash mobile wallet that it says enables direct, fast and relatively cheap money transfers via mobile between users in Fiji, Samoa, Tonga and Vanuatu.

Operator Ethio Telecom, in partnership with Siinqee Bank, an Ethiopian provider of banking and microfinance services, has launched a new range of mobile financial services and smartphone financing solutions.