For the second time in a week, Safaricom’s M-Pesa is in the news with one of its products, as the Kenyan mobile money service launches an interest-free loan service for buying goods.
In a reminder of the changing business models of many operators in Africa, it has been reported that the M-Pesa virtual Visa card, introduced in June, is now undercutting Kenya’s commercial banks in the foreign exchange market.
Airtel Africa has launched SmartCash Payment Service Bank, a wholly-owned subsidiary, to provide secure and reliable financial services across Nigeria.
MTN Nigeria, the country’s leading operator and the leading MTN operator by subscriber numbers, has taken 18 Nigerian banks to court over the alleged unauthorised transfer of ₦22.3 billion ($53.7 million) from an account owned by its recently-licensed mobile money Payment Service Bank (PSB) MoMo.
Payments business Cellulant Zambia has announced a digital payment partnership with five leading Zambian water utility companies; Nkana Water, Kafubu Water, Mulonga Water, Chambeshi Water and Western Water.
In what is accurately described as a rare acquisition of a US tech company by an African tech company, MFS Africa, Africa’s largest digital payments network, has reached an agreement to buy Global Technology Partners (GTP), which specializes in creating innovative processing and payment solutions for the prepaid industry.
Ooredoo Maldives has commenced a trial of its International Money Transfer service via m-Faisaa.
Mobily Pay, a mobile wallet powered by leading Saudi Arabia-based telecommunications and digital service provider Mobily, and MoneyGram International, a major name in digital P2P payments, have announced a partnership to launch MoneyGram's international money transfer capabilities on Mobily Pay.
Kenya’s Safaricom and financial services giant Visa have introduced the first M-Pesa GlobalPay Visa Virtual card, a mobile-phone-based system that they say opens up global shopping for Kenyan consumers.
Could free fintech-enabled smartphones be coming to unbanked women in Africa? That’s the promise of a new strategic partnership that aims to help women to be able to save, invest, and access loans from the convenience of their own phones – even if they live miles away from a bank.
Egyptian bank ADCB-Egypt has extended its collaboration with Temenos to deliver next-generation digital payments on the latter’s open platform for composable banking.
With the Safaricom Ethiopia launch still some months off, the country’s state-owned incumbent Ethio Telecom has again taken advantage of its sole service provider position with the introduction of another mobile finance-related service in Africa’s second most populous country.
Two recent announcements underline the continuing drive on the part of fintech groups to bring their technology to African institutions and consumers.
Airtel Africa and MTN Nigeria have finally launched their mobile banking services in Nigeria.
Cloud banking platform provider Temenos has signed up Saigon-Hanoi Bank (SHB) for its digital banking platform, a move for the lender to meet the rising demand for electronic banking in Vietnam.
Trade association the GSMA has launched the Mobile Money API Compliance Verification Service to support the growth of trusted mobile money ecosystems in developing nations.
Grab Holdings Limited, and leading communications technology group Singtel have announced that GXS Bank Pte. Ltd, their digital bank joint venture, supported by a consortium of Malaysian investors, is among the companies selected to receive a full digital banking licence in Malaysia.
NALA, a Tanzania-based fintech company, has teamed up with pan-African payments company Cellulant to power remittance payments from the United Kingdom and United States into Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania and Ghana.
Zain Jordan has announced the launch of Western Union digital money transfer services through the Zain Cash mobile wallet.
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.
