Mobile Finance

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.

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.

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.