WorldRemit, online money transfer ser¬vice, on Tues¬day, said it has signed a global partnership with MTN, Nigeria’s largest tel¬ecommunications operator with 60 million subscrib¬ers, which would enable WorldRemit customers to send remittances instantly to MTN’s mobile money customers.
According to the firm, this agreement extends WorldRemit’s position as the leading provider of re¬mittances to mobile money users at a time when the technology is experiencing rapid uptake, especially in Africa. Interestingly, more than 50 percent of all WorldRemit transfers to Africa are received in mobile money accounts or as mobile airtime top-ups. MTN mobile money is in¬creasingly a critical part of MTN’s service offering, and the partnership with Worl¬dRemit further strengthens the operator’s position in cross border remittances.
Ismail Ahmed, founder and chief executive officer of WorldRemit, in a state¬ment, Tuesday, said mobile money is rapidly displacing cash as a way of receiving money from friends and family abroad.
Read also: WorldRemit expands instant money transfers in Nigeria
“WorldRemit’s partner¬ship with MTN allows our customers around the world to send money instantly to MTN mobile money users. As well as being fast and convenient, MTN mobile money is reaching mil¬lions of people who don’t have bank accounts, giving them access to a variety of life-enhancing financial services including savings and insurance schemes”, he added. MTN mobile money is currently used by 22.2 million customers in 16 countries across Africa, i.e. Benin, Botswana, Came¬roon, Congo, Ghana, Guinea Bissau, Guinea Republic, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, Swa¬ziland, Uganda and Zambia.To commence the part-nership, MTN’s operations in Uganda, Rwanda and Zambia will be added to WorldRemit’s list of mobile recipient options, with ad¬ditional countries following soon after. “The partnership with WorldRemit is yet another important step in our journey to enable the affordable transfer of monies across borders. Our remittance strategy places the customer at the heart of any offer we introduce as MTN and, working with WorldRemit, we intend to further extend the convenience of MTN mobile money to our customers,” said Pi¬eter Verkade, MTN group’s chief commercial officer.
MTN mobile money ena¬bles users to perform local and international money transfers, make utility pay¬ments, save money in their interest bearing mobile wallets, purchase airtime and access a range of mobile financial products.
Globally, there are 256 mobile money services cur¬rently active, according to the GSMA. There were an estimated 60 million active mobile money users in June 2013, up from 30 million in 2012, according to the GSMA State of the Industry Report.¬
