Browsing: M-pesa

In a recent announcement during the US-Africa Business Roundtable in the United States, Kenya’s President William Ruto revealed that Safaricom, a leading telecommunications company, is establishing a strategic partnership with Apple Inc. The Safaricom-Apple partnership will integrate the widely-used mobile money platform, M-Pesa, with Apple’s ecosystem. This integration will expand M-Pesa’s mobile financial services globally.
President William Ruto announced the deal after he toured Silicon Valley in San Francisco Bay, United States, on 16 September. The Kenyan leader is fast gaining popularity across Africa and globally. He has led from the front in marketing Kenya as a conducive ground for foreign business to thrive.…

• Safaricom targets a customer base of at least 10 million across 25 cities in the next year.
• Since Safaricom Ethiopia switched on its mobile telecommunications network, it has grown coverage from an initial 11 to 22 cities.
• Safaricom Ethiopia is building a wholly-owned mobile network and also has infrastructure sharing deal with state-owned Ethio Telecom.

Safaricom is now targeting a customer base of at least 10 million in Ethiopia in the next one year. The move is tailored to shake up the country’s telecommunication industry. Latest developments follows huge investments in the country, with cash transfer service M-PESA now on the table.

Since Safaricom Telecommunications Ethiopia switched on its mobile telecommunications network and services in Addis Ababa in October last year, major inroads have been made in the second-most populous country in Africa.

It has grown coverage from an initial 11 cities when it launched to 22. The telco with …

Due to the Till number’s ease of interoperability, it is now not necessary for businesses to sign up for numerous Paybill/Till numbers for them to accept payments from customers who pay using different numbers.
This latest product by the giant financial institution brings competition to Kenya’s established M-Pesa tills which have been adopted countrywide. Others that will feel the pinch include Airtel Money which is battling the giant telco in courts over its dominant position in the country.
Equity already has Equitel, Equity Mobile and now the One Equity Till number.…

The question is, what if one day you went to pay for expenses with your card or mobile app and it returned an error message? Or was your service provider that issues your money declared bankrupt? Scary, right?
Recently, customers have been converting their regular traditional money into e-money. Service providers have enabled the transfer of electronic money to banks, from person to person, and for making payments.
For regulators and supervisors that control the protection of consumers’ e-money and digital currencies, coming up with legal bindings and restrictions in the fast-changing sector has become very challenging. These regulators and supervisors must devise ways to protect customers from a possible system failure and ultimately prevent them from losing their funds.…

M-Pesa is on course to become a US$1Bn business.

Safaricom Plc (NSE: SCOM) released its interim results on 10th November announcing a 12.1% year-on-year (y/y) rise in 1H22 net earnings. Combing through its numbers against our estimates, its net earnings per share print (KES0.92) outperformed our expectation of KES0.85. The outperformance was primarily driven by lower than forecasted cost environment. Direct costs came in at KES44.5Bn (+20.3% y/y), beating our forecast of KES49.2Bn, while operating costs came in at KES23.4Bn (+10.3% y/y) outperforming our forecast of KES29.6Bn.  

M-Pesa revenues printed at KES52.3Bn (+45.8% y/y), against our forecast of KES55.9Bn. Behind the strong y/y growth, total transaction value grew 51.5% y/y to KES13.7Tn with volumes up 42.0% y/y to 7.3Bn. Two other factors were at play in the revenue performance: The lapse of zero-rated transactions (as expected) and a 31.3% y/y rise in 30-day active M-Pesa average revenue per user …

Despite the effects of Covid-19 Africa remains the ripe land of opportunities and as the conversation about Investing in Africa is shifting from one of deficits and gaps to one about Opportunities, Prospects, Trends, Innovation and creativity, in the Companies and industries who have paid close attention to how business in Africa operates.

Africa continues to be the newest destination for emerging market investors and according to Eric Osiakwan, the managing partner at Chanzo Capital, half of the world’s fastest-growing economies have been in Africa, with Ghana and Ethiopia among the countries which showed a real GDP growth of 8 percent in 2018.

In an interview with this reporter at the Social House hotel in Lavington area of Nairobi, Eric Osiakwan a renowned tech investor and entrepreneur says that Investors seek out emerging markets for the prospect of high returns, as they often experience faster economic growth as measured …

With over billion mobile money accounts Africa continues to lead the way in transaction value and volume thanks to M-pesa a Kenyan based mobile money service, that is largely used in East Africa. Other regions all-round the Continent are also registering massive growth.

In 2019, West Africa reported the most live mobile money services in any region, with 56 million active accounts. In Ivory Coast, one of Francophone Africa’s largest mobile money markets, 75% of the population own a mobile money account, compared to 20% who own bank accounts. The difference is staggering and clearly shows the region’s huge appetite for the service.

While telecom operators have largely dominated mobile money services across most of sub-Saharan Africa, a few startups are trying to change the mobile money experience for customers. Ivory Coast-based fintech startup Julaya a digital account for African small and Medium businesses is one such company, that has …

The government amended the Electronic and Postal Communication Act (CAP) last month by imposing a levy of between US$0.0043 (10Tsh) and US$4 on mobile money transactions, depending on the amount sent and withdrawn.

One of the key factors that led to the expansion of mobile money in Africa and Tanzania, in this case, was the increased interoperability, product expansion—which brought financial inclusion to enable nearly everyone with decent income-earning schedules to own a mobile wallet account.…

East Africa is a global leader of mobile money with the highest penetration of mobile money in the world according to a report by the African Union in collaboration with the Organisation for Economic Corporation and Development.

The joint report is titled; Africa’s Development Dynamics’ authored by the African Union (AU) in collaboration with the Organisation for Economic Corporation and Development.

Mobile money services are provided by telecommunication companies and supported by a network of licensed agents that allows registered users to deposit and withdraw cash in a virtual wallet.

According to data from the report, for every 1,000 adults, the East Africa region has 1,106 registered mobile money accounts compared to  600 for the whole of Africa, 533 and 245 for Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean respectively.

The penetration is higher in the region with most adults subscribers owning one or more mobile money accounts.

According to the …