Mobile Finance

The Ethiopian government has switched up a national payment law to pave the way for Safaricom to launch its popular M-Pesa mobile money platform in the country.

African digital payments company DPO Group has announced the introduction of a new form of payment that will allow merchants to get paid by their customers via a USSD code. This new feature, says DPO, allows merchants to receive payments from customers who don’t have access to mobile banking or a payment card.

MTN Mobile Money Uganda Limited and Jumo, a technology company building next-generation financial services for emerging markets, have launched MoSente, a new service that allows MTN customers to access credit facilities.

Telebirr, a mobile payment and digital wallet service launched by Ethiopia’s state-owned operator Ethio Telecom in May 2021, has reached over 17.6 million subscribers with a cumulative transaction value of 12.58 billion birr (about $245.2 million) to date.

Smartphone brand Infinix has launched the Infinix Wallet, a digital wallet app co-developed with mobile financial services platform PalmPay. The aim of the app is to provide a seamless digital financial experience to users across emerging market economies, starting with a number of African markets.

The rapid growth of mobile money-based services continues. Ooredoo Money Services, part of Qatar-headquartered operator Ooredoo, has announced a partnership with Thunes, a global payment services platform based in Singapore, to provide instant money transfers to multiple mobile wallets internationally.

Two of the world’s biggest names in digital payments have announced major agreements in significant African markets: Visa in Egypt with operator Orange Egypt and Mastercard in Kenya with digital payment solution provider PesaLink.

Remittances are back in the headlines with news of a recently announced partnership that is targeting Zimbabweans who want to transfer funds from the UK to South Africa and Zimbabwe.

MTN’s Nigeria business – which constitutes its largest market in Africa – has been very much in the news in recent days, mainly thanks to the approval by the Central Bank of Nigeria of a licence for MTN's Mobile Money (MoMo) Payment Service Bank in the country.

Kenya’s mobile network operators (MNOs) Telkom, Safaricom, and Airtel have announced the interoperability of their mobile money service platforms, allowing Kenyans to make mobile money payments to a Lipa Na M-PESA Buy Goods Till, from any of the three networks.

Zambia’s regulator has claimed to have blocked over two million illegal SIM cards, a move that is part of plans to clamp down on illegal activities prevailing as citizens take up digital financial services.

Vietnam has highlighted several hurdles to spreading the popularity of mobile money among mobile phone users, but operators still back it for major growth.  

Safaricom is considering spinning off its M-Pesa mobile money division into a full subsidiary, in what seems to be a push to align with more traditional banking institutions. 

MTN and Airtel were one of many fintech companies to have been given permits by the Ugandan government to operate financial services in the country.

Mobile wallet payments are expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 42.7% between 2021 and 2025 and reach INR305.6 trillion ($4.1 trillion) in 2025 in India, said a study.

M-Pesa, which is Kenya’s, and the African continent’s, best-known mobile payment system, has passed the 30 million user mark in Kenya.

International payments platform Paysend has expanded its money transfer services with Pix, the Central Bank of Brazil’s instant payment platform.

Pakistan-based fintech platform NayaPay has raised $13 million in one of the largest seed rounds in South Asia.

Ooredoo Maldives has partnered with Rakuten Viber to enable customers in the Maldives to easily send and receive money transfers on Viber’s m-Faisaa messaging platform.

The State Bank of Pakistan approved MCB Bank to perform due diligence to acquire a majority stake in Telenor's financial operations in Pakistan.

An uplifting recent story of African entrepreneurial success comes from South Africa where Lipa Payments, a local fintech start-up, has secured a R10 million (just under US$660,000) investment from Empowerment Capital’s Imvelo Ventures, which is backed by Capitec Bank.

Pakistan’s largest bank network HBL is adopting Temenos’ core banking platform to improve the user experience of its domestic and international operations.

In another example of the apparently unstoppable growth of digital finance in Africa, the African Development Fund (ADF) and the government of Malawi have signed a grant agreement for $14.2 million to undertake infrastructure upgrades and create a more efficient and transparent digital payment system.

Over 463,000 people have used mobile money services in Vietnam since operators Viettel and VNPT launched the cashless payments  last year.

The suspension of bidding for a second new Ethiopian mobile licence will not affect earlier licence winner Safaricom’s permission to offer mobile financial services, according to Dr Eyob Tekalgn Tolina, the State Minister of the country’s Ministry of Finance.

Mobile innovation continues to bring new money services to Africans, most recently in the form of mobile life insurance in Ghana and remittance from Europe for mobile money account holders in Cameroon.

Infobip has implemented a WhatsApp-based chat banking solution for fintech start-up Afridig Wallets.

Integrated payments technology company FSS (Financial Software and Systems) has partnered with the United Arab Emirates-based YAP, a digital banking platform, to deliver secure, digital first-card experiences to consumers in the Middle-East and African regions.

Saudi Arabia’s stc pay, the digital payment provider service of telecommunications company stc, has launched Qattah, which it describes as an integrated service which will allow customers to easily share and track expenses with multiple people, removing the stress from splitting bills.

Telkom, a South African wireline and wireless telecommunications provider, announced that Telkom Kenya has launched an app for its mobile money product, T-Kash.