In recent years, instant digital payment solutions have grown significantly across the African continent.
Africa accounted for 70 per cent of the value of mobile money transactions worldwide in 2021.
In the latest development, Cellulant, a Pan-African Fintech company, has partnered with Orange Money, the mobile money service of Orange, to enable card-to-wallet transfers for 8 banks in Botswana. This partnership has allowed Orange to increase its digital cash-in reach as they were previously only open to Absa and Standard Chartered Bank through the Bank to Wallet product offering.
- Orange Money, the mobile money service of Orange, and pan-African payments company, Cellulant have launched a partnership to enable card-to-wallet transfers for eight banks in Botswana.
- This partnership enables customers to move funds straight into their Orange Money wallets from their bank accounts through their cards.
By leveraging its vast networks, Orange Money will now enable customers with bank cards from all 8 banks in Botswana to move money from their cards to any Orange Money wallet.
This partnership enables customers to move funds straight into their Orange Money wallets from their bank accounts through their cards. While most banks in Botswana have Mobile apps, a few still do not provide this option for their customers.
This solution will now allow bank customers to move money from their bank accounts to their Orange Money wallets through the Orange Botswana website, a process that is powered by Tingg. This applies to both the banks that have apps and those that do not.
According to Tech Economy, the partnership further solves the long queues that customers have to make to access the agents. This solution, therefore, gives bank customers more options, and as a result, customers experience ease and accessibility in moving money seamlessly.
“This service affirms our commitment towards contributing positively to the growth of the informal and financial services sectors. The introduction of Card-To-Wallet aligns with our financial inclusion strategy that is centred around providing relevant and convenient solutions that address our customers’ everyday needs, as well as addressing our priorities around placing our customers first!“ said Orange Money CEO Seabelo Pilane.
Speaking on the partnership, Bathusi Belem, Cellulant Botswana country manager, stated: “We are pleased to partner with Orange Money Botswana to power payments for their Card-to-Wallet service. This is in line with our strategy to extend our services to merchants in Botswana with a view of helping them digitize their payments.”
Customers can also buy airtime and access other mobile network operator services using their Visa or Mastercard debit and credit cards through Tingg, Cellulant’s digital payments platform.
Tingg by Cellulant is at the forefront of ensuring digital financial solutions are available across the continent. Tingg, which integrates 211 banks in Africa, is a one-stop payment aggregator for multinational corporations, mid-caps, and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
Tingg enables merchants to receive, view and reconcile all their payments through a single platform or their system by integrating Tingg’s Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), eliminating the need to subscribe to multiple providers’ payments and, in the case of mobile money, mobile network operators (MNOs) and banks.
Uptake of Tingg in Africa is underway, with products such as in-store payments leveraging mobile money and mobile banking as payment methods via QR and USSD codes.
- Customers can also buy airtime and access other mobile network operator services using their Visa or Mastercard debit and credit cards through Tingg, Cellulant’s digital payments platform.
- Orange Money currently leads the mobile money industry in Botswana with a 30% market share and over P4.5 billion (US$351 million) in transactions since its launch in 2011.
This streamlines business administration processes for merchants while expanding the range of payment options they can offer customers, ensuring maximum choice and flexibility both online and offline.
Cellulant has been in Botswana for over 11 years as a technical solutions partner providing value-added and digital banking services to banks in the country.
According to statistics, Orange Money currently leads the mobile money industry in Botswana with a 30 per cent market share and over P4.5 billion (US$351 million) in transactions since its launch in 2011.
Meanwhile, Orange Botswana has recorded tremendous growth since it launched its mobile money service, Orange Money, in 2011. This was confirmed by the CEO of Orange Money, Seabelo Pilane, in July 2021 when the company commemorated its 10th anniversary.
Pilane said being the first mobile money service provider, Orange had to overcome a lot of scepticism until it evolved into the country’s most sought-after mobile money service provider. He added that “the Orange Money revolution” had since led to more financial inclusivity.
He said after risking Orange’s reputation at the beginning by trying out a product that the market was not used to, Orange Money today holds a market share of 30 per cent of the mobile money industry of persons above the age of 16.
“Orange was the first to introduce mobile money services by rolling out Orange Money in 2011,” Pilane said. “The typical question on the market was whether it had a fighting chance, considering that mobile money services traditionally have limited success in markets that have a high banked population such as Botswana. However, we were silently confident and stayed the course. Today we are proud to say Orange Money is the country’s leading mobile financial services provider since its inception 10 years ago.”
According to an article by Business Weekly dated April 27, 2022, as part of its evolution, in 2013, the company introduced the Orange Money Visa Card, which was the first for Botswana. This was followed by the Bank-To-Wallet, which allows transactions from banks to Orange Money subscribers and vice versa. After that came the International Money Transfer (IMT), which is available in countries like Zimbabwe, Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Malawi, and South Africa.
Ever innovative, in 2021, the leading mobile money transfer company added the Card-To-Wallet service and the Bill Payment Solution, which is intended to offer more financial inclusion and convenience. By the beginning of 2021, Orange Money had over 500 000 active users.
