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Providers

Kenyan President Urges Ethiopia to Open up Mobile Money Market

June 9 2021

“Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta on Tuesday urged Ethiopia to open up its telecoms sector to private mobile money business investors, a move that would complement a process already underway to reform the sector and bring in foreign investment. Ethiopia is opening up its telecoms sector, hitherto a monopoly of the state-owned Ethio Telecom, and last […]
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Providers

Airtel Revises Mobile Money Tariff By Reducing Charges

May 27 2021

“Airtel Kenya has announced its plans to revise its Airtel Money tariff set to take effect from 3rd June 2021. These new adjustments will see charges on cash withdrawals from agents changed with money transaction fees to other networks being adjusted as well. According to Airtel, the new tariff us aimed at getting Airtel customers […]
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Global

Why South Africa’s Vodacom Is Planning to Sell Off Part of Its M-Pesa Stake

May 24 2021

“South Africa’s biggest telco, Vodacom has received premium buyout offers for a partial stake in its mobile money business, M-Pesa. According to CEO, Shameel Joosub, Vodacom will be forced to consider these offers if M-Pesa’s performance does not significantly push up its market valuation…Unlike in Kenya where M-Pesa covers 91% of the entire mobile subscriber […]
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Deals

MFS Africa Invests in Maviance

May 14 2021

“MFS Africa, a pan-African fintech company, operating the largest digital payments hub on the continent, had provided seed investment of $3m to Maviance, a Cameroon-based fintech provider. Maviance will be using the new funding to increase its footprint in its Cameroon and to expand into other countries in the central African economic region (CEMAC).    […]
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Providers

Safaricom in Talks With U.S. Giant Amazon on Mobile Payments

May 14 2021

“Safaricom Plc of Kenya is holding talks with Amazon.com Inc. about the use of mobile-money service M-Pesa on the e-commerce giant’s platform, part of efforts to expand global reach and bounce back from a first profit decline in a decade. M-Pesa accounts for about a third of Safaricom’s revenue, and East Africa’s largest company sees […]
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Global

UPDATE 1-Ethiopia’s State Telecoms Monopoly Launches Mobile Money Service

May 12 2021

“Ethiopia’s sole mobile operator, Ethio Telecom, launched a mobile phone-based financial service on Tuesday, seeking to boost growth by offering cashless transactions. Mobile financial services have become a significant part of African telecom operators’ businesses since Kenya’s Safaricom pioneered them with M-Pesa in 2007, giving people an alternative to banks. The new service, telebirr, will […]
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Global

Africa’s Digital Payments Race Becomes a Scramble

May 6 2021

“The prospect of a cashless Africa has triggered a scramble for control of its payments plumbing. The continent’s top telecoms operators have become big financial players thanks to their “mobile money” networks, which provide basic banking to tens of millions through handsets. If China is a guide, that could make them gatekeepers to a fintech […]
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