Mobile Finance

Chinese handset maker Oppo has reportedly apologised to customers in Thailand after admitting to the telecoms regulator that its devices came with pre-installed loan apps that had not been approved by the Bank of Thailand (BOT).

Financial services platform Mukuru says it has launched a mobile wallet in Zimbabwe called Mukuru Wallet. This follows Mukuru’s award of a Deposit-Taking Microfinance Institution (DTMFI) licence in the country by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has enabled prepaid payment instruments (PPIs) to make unified payments interface (UPI) transactions via third-party mobile applications, a concept that may sound arcane on first glance, but one that could speed up the money transfer process in India.

While it’s been a holiday season in many parts of the world, it’s been a busy week for Safaricom Ethiopia – at least in terms of significant announcements involving M-Pesa services and coverage growth.

PalmPay, the Africa-focused fintech operating Nigeria’s most used mobile wallet, and Jumia, Africa’s e-commerce giant, have announced a strategic partnership to enhance the digital payment ecosystem on the continent, starting with payment integrations and co-marketing efforts in Nigeria.

Smart Communications, the mobile arm of Philippine telco PLDT, is reportedly making moves to relaunch its original mobile money app, Smart Money, in an apparent bid to directly take on rival telco Globe Telecom’s GCash.

Two notable fintech deals have recently been announced in the United Arab Emirates. The latest involves payments services company Worldline, which has partnered with Telr, a Dubai-based payment gateway aggregator and provider, to launch an e-commerce payments solution for the rapidly expanding UAE market.

M-Pesa Africa – the mobile money JV between Safaricom and Vodacom Group – says that it’s expanding its partnership with global payment infrastructure provider Thunes to enable users in Kenya and Tanzania to use their M-Pesa wallet to make payments when traveling to China.

MTN Rwanda's fintech arm, Mobile Money Rwanda (MoMo Rwanda), has partnered with payment giant Mastercard to launch a new virtual payment solution in Rwanda.

Madagascar’s three mobile money operators – MVola, Orange Money and Airtel Money – have denounced plans by the government’s Directorate General for Taxes (DGI) to tax mobile money transactions, which they say will discourage financial inclusion and harm the economy.

Mobile money services MTN MoMo in South Africa and EcoCash in Zimbabwe have partnered to provide what are described as effortless direct cash transfers between the two countries.

Globe Telecom president and CEO Ernest Cu said on Monday that unauthorized transactions that affected some GCash wallet users in the Philippines over the weekend were the result of a glitch, and that no funds were lost.

Visa says it is collaborating with QR payment providers across the Asia-Pacific region to kick off a scheme that would enable digital wallet users in the region to make QR payments at merchants when traveling abroad.

Global payment infrastructure provider Thunes said on Tuesday it has expanded its collaboration with Philippine mobile payments platform GCash to enables users to top up their wallet balances directly within the app using funds from UK and European bank accounts.

Mastercard announced on Tuesday it has launched Mastercard Pay Local, a new global service that enables digital wallet users in Asia-Pacific, Latin America, Eastern Europe, and the Middle East and Africa to pay locally when they travel.

Brazil-based digital bank platform Nubank announced plans on Tuesday to join Brazil's increasingly crowded mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) space in a bid to expand its portfolio beyond financial services.

Hormuud Telecom strengthened its EVC Plus mobile money platform by making it interoperable with MyBank and Agro Bank, with plans to onboard more banks in 2025.

Kenyan and Ethiopian service provider Safaricom has extended its M-Pesa Global service – which enables M-Pesa registered customers to send and receive money globally – to Ethiopia, allowing customers to make mobile money transactions from Kenya to Ethiopia.

Leading financial services platform Mukuru has announced the launch of its new mobile wallet in Malawi, the Mukuru Wallet, which, Mukuru says, is designed to address the growing demand for a convenient, secure, efficient way to manage funds and make money transfers.

MTC Namibia launched its mobile financial service, MTC Maris, as the Namibian government hailed the operator for “stepping ahead” of its rivals, while urging them to follow suit in order to connect the fifth of the population that remains unbanked.

Ericsson announced on Friday announced that it has completed a major tech stack upgrade for Pakistan’s Telenor Microfinance Bank (TMB), giving its mobile wallet easypaisa a cloud-native platform on which to scale up its services.

KaiOS,  whose mobile operating system brings the internet to affordable devices, has announced a partnership with payment giant Mastercard to integrate a range of digital payments solutions for developing markets, beginning with Cote d’Ivoire and Nigeria.

Safaricom and Mastercard announced on Thursday that they have signed a partnership to accelerate adoption of payment acceptance and cross-border remittance services in Kenya.

The central banks of Cambodia and Malaysia have launched the first phase of a cross-border payments system that initially enables Cambodian travellers to purchase good and services in Malaysia using QR codes.

A reminder that in large parts of Africa internet connectivity is not always guaranteed comes from PalmPay, a financial platform with over 30 million users on its smartphone app in Nigeria. PalmPay has announced the launch of its USSD code, a service that offers Nigerians an additional way to manage their finances without the need for internet connectivity.

Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) says that Mastercard has partnered with its fintech subsidiary U Microfinance Bank (UBank) to issue a new physical and virtual debit card for its mobile financial services platform UPaisa.

International money transfer operator Sasai Money Transfer has announced that it has partnered with Airtel Money, the payments division of operator Airtel, to expand what it describes as its revolutionary offer of free remittances to more African markets, this time targeting Uganda.

Ethio Telecom partnered with financial powerhouse Visa to launch the first Visa digital wallet in Ethiopia, a move the operator claimed modernises remittance and bolster its fintech business.

North Korea’s Pyongyang Information Technology Bureau is reportedly conducting inspections of the country’s electronic payments network to update equipment and stabilize operations in a drive to boost confidence in the country's transition to digital finance.

MTN Nigeria says it has taken full ownership of Mobile Money Payment Service Bank (MoMo PSB) after buying the 7.17% share owned by Acxani Capital for around NGN6.95 billion (US$4.36 million).

Paymentology, a card issuing and processing platform, has announced a partnership with Salaam Bank’s Waafi in Somalia.

BnB, a fintech company that says it is committed to revolutionising financial services in Africa, has launched an initiative that seeks to expand international money transfer services in collaboration with operator Lonestar Cell MTN’s MoMo (a mobile money service).

Globe Telecoms’ fintech unit Mynt (Globe Fintech Innovations) gained fresh investments from Ayala Corp and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG), a move that will boost the valuation of Mynt to US$5 billion, claimed Globe.