Intra-African cross-border remittances and digital wallet company EziPay has partnered with digital payments gateway MFS Africa to bring last-mile connectivity for remittances and collections to and from mobile money wallets and bank accounts in Africa.
SC Ventures, Standard Chartered's innovation, fintech investment and ventures arm, has entered into a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Yabx, a firm aiming to enable the underserved with limited credit history to get fair access to financial services tailored to their needs.
Electronic financial service ZainCash Iraq has announced the launch of Western Union international money transfer services through the ZainCash mobile application, enabling customers in Iraq to connect to more than 200 countries and territories.
Fintech provider Optasia is launching a microloan service in Guinea with pan-African Ecobank and MTN, via the latter’s MoMo (Mobile Money) service.
Mama Money, a South African fintech that offers cross-border money transfer and banking services, has partnered with AFC Commercial Bank, a market leader in Zimbabwe with a reliable and robust payout network.
TOD, described as the fastest growing streaming platform for the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) has struck a strategic partnership with TPAY, a leading payments company in the Middle East, Turkey and Africa (META).
Thai operator AIS abandoned a joint venture with Siam Commercial Bank (SCB) to deliver digital banking services.
It appears African operators no longer have the fintech market all to themselves. In fact NCBA Group, a Kenya-headquartered financial services conglomerate, recently announced that is planning to work with partners to bring its mobile phone banking service M-Shwari to Ghana, Ethiopia and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
Another mobile payment initiative has been announced – this time in Indonesia. Telecommunications services giant Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison (IOH) has announced a partnership with banking payment platform Tara | Indepay.
Vodacom Congo subsidiary Vodacash is launching its new service M-Pesa Rallonge in the DRC, granting mobile banking customers access to financial assistance from their cell phones.
Pan-African payments technology company Cellulant is in the news again, this time thanks to a partnership with B2C e-commerce platform Copia focused on the Kenyan market.
Tigo Money, the fintech business of fixed and mobile telecommunications services provider Millicom, and digital payments company Visa have announced a regional agreement aimed at expanding access to digital financial services and driving financial inclusion across Latin America.
Operators have called on the lowering of red tape to enable a revamp and diversification in services, particularly in fintech – a move highlighted to avoid flattening revenues seen in western service providers.
Fintech firm Yabx has announced that it is entering the Nigerian market.
A new app called PostalPay will, it is claimed, slash the cost of sending money from parts of Europe to Uganda.
As mobile and digital money become more widely used across Africa, so public and private bodies are responding to fears of fraud, as recent news from Ghana and Kenya indicates.
Airtel Kenya announced the separation of its mobile money unit from its core network operations as the operator complies with regulations set by the central bank, ending a process three years in the making.
Nigeria’s Globacom has joined the rush to open payment service banks (PSBs) with the launch of its MoneyMaster PSB offering. MoneyMaster was granted a payment service bank licence by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in 2020.
Orange Money, the mobile money service of Orange, and leading pan-African payments company Cellulant have launched a partnership to enable card-to-wallet transfers for eight banks in Botswana.
The telecoms-led financial revolution is continuing in Africa. This time it’s South Africa’s Vodacom Financial Services that has extended the scope of digital finance with VodaLend Cash Advance, described as a product that gives customers quick and secure access to money when they need it most.
It’s not just Indian operator Reliance Jio that has been making the news for parent company and multinational conglomerate Reliance Industries Ltd. Now RIL’s technology business Jio Platforms and US technology giant Meta have collaborated to launch JioMart on WhatsApp.
North International Bank (NIBank) has gone live with Temenos to digitally transform its retail banking and private wealth business lines.
Fintech firm VYZYO has announced that its subsidiary TDFP (Tunisian Digital Finance for People) has signed a partnership agreement with local Al Baraka Bank to launch and operate a new mobile wallet service.
Ethiopian mobile money service TeleBirr has now passed the 20 million subscriber mark. In fact the Xinhua agency reports that TeleBirr, a service designed and rolled out with help from Huawei, now boasts more than 21 million subscribers.
Orange Cameroon has been granted permission by the country’s Ministry of Finance to launch Orange Money Cameroon SA, a subsidiary dedicated to financial transactions via mobile phones.
