Mobile Finance

M-Pesa Ethiopia last week announced the signing of an agreement with the country’s postal service EthioPost, officially designating EthioPost as the primary agent within the M-Pesa ecosystem.

Kenyan money transfer service Pesalink says it has partnered with the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System (PAPSS) to ease cross-border payment and speed up regional financial integration.

Pan-African banking group Ecobank Transnational Incorporated and Hub2, a regional fintech infrastructure provider, have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to connect Hub2’s network of more than 200 million mobile wallets to Ecobank’s pan-African digital banking platform.

M-Pesa Ethiopia and African AI creator platform Gebeya announced on Wednesday they have launched a subscription package that allows Ethiopians to access AI creation tools and pay for them directly via M-Pesa.

Pan-African infrastructure and services group Axian says it has secured a Decentralised Digital Financial Institution (DFI) license from the Central Bank of Comoros, enabling the creation of a newly established regulated entity operating under a prudential supervisory framework.

The Liberia Telecommunications Authority (LTA) said on Friday it has granted Orange Money a separate license to operate as a mobile money service provider under new regulations requiring telcos to decouple from their mobile money subsidiaries.

Nigerian operators have settled a long-running unstructured supplementary service data (USSD) payment dispute with commercial banks. It seems that, five years after the dispute began, all outstanding payments have now been made.

Telecommunications technology giant Ericsson and Mastercard, a global technology company in the payments industry, have announced a collaboration they claim can reshape how money moves across the world – beginning with the Middle East and Africa.

Du Pay, the digital financial services arm of UAE-based telco du, says it is collaborating with Nepalese digital remittance firm Esewa Money Transfer to promote cross-border payments to Nepalese expats in the UAE.

Safaricom has partnered with the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) to launch Ziidi Trader, a new feature within the M-PESA app that allows customers to buy and sell shares directly from their mobile phones.

Two Zambian operators have announced major digital finance initiatives in the past week, MTN with an eye to the international market and Airtel focusing on in-country payment requirements.

Sri Lankan telco Dialog Axiata said on Wednesday it has integrated GovPay – the government’s digital payment platform for government services – into its eZ Cash mobile money service, enabling users to pay for government services at eZ Cash retail outlets.

Mobile operator U9 (formerly Ooredoo Myanmar) revealed on Tuesday it has signed an MoU with TrueMoney Myanmar to enable broader access to digital financial services for individuals and businesses across the country.

A busy start to the week for payments giant Mastercard has included announcements of major deals in Saudi Arabia and Jordan.

Veon Group plans to invest US$20 million in its financial services subsidiary Mobilink Microfinance Bank, as the company looks to scale digital banking services in Pakistan.

Kenya’s Capital Markets Authority (CMA) says it has officially licensed operators Safaricom and Airtel Money Kenya to operate as what are called intermediary service platform providers (ISPPs).

In what is described as a first for the EEMEA region, First Abu Dhabi Bank (FAB) and payment giant Mastercard have officially launched Mastercard’s proprietary mobile-first virtual card number (VCN) solution for businesses.

Global digital operator Veon announced on Friday that its financial services subsidiary, Mobilink Microfinance Bank has launched Islamic banking operations in Pakistan, in response to growing customer demand for Shariah-compliant financial services.

The Central Bank of Liberia (CBL) has launched an interoperable payments platform developed by the Mojaloop Foundation that enables mobile money transfers between mobile operators Lone Star Cell MTN and Orange Liberia.

Orange Money Group, the mobile money service of telecommunications service provider Orange, and payments giant Visa have announced a strategic partnership aimed at accelerating online payments and democratising access to financial services across Africa and the Middle East.

Veon-owned telco Banglalink announced on Thursday it has received regulatory clearance from Bangladesh Bank to operate as a digital payment service provider in Bangladesh as it seeks to expand into digital financial services.

TenPay Global, the cross-border payment platform of Chinese multinational technology conglomerate Tencent, and Mastercard Move, payment giant Mastercard’s money movement business, have announced a collaboration.

Cameroon Telecommunications (Camtel) and Ethio Telecom are set to sign a master service agreement (MSA) on Thursday to cooperate on accelerating Camtel’s digital transformation, to include Camtel’s launch of its planned mobile money service, Blue Money.

Safaricom’s M-Pesa Ethiopia announced on Monday it has launched a new mobile money platform on Monday called M-Pesa LeHulum that works with any SIM card, effectively opening M-Pesa up to anyone regardless of what mobile network they use.

Papua New Guinea telco Digicel PNG and local microbank MiBank announced on Friday they have formed a new strategic partnership that enables two-way transfers between MiBank accounts and Digicel’s mobile money service CellMoni.

Axian Group says it has formed a strategic collaboration agreement with Mastercard to launch digital payment solutions in the five African markets where Axian operates mobile networks: Madagascar, Comoros Islands, Senegal, Togo, and Tanzania.

Vodacom Tanzania launched a global payments service for its M-Pesa mobile money platform on Thursday that enables Tanzanian customers and merchants to use their M-Pesa wallets to make payments while traveling and doing business abroad.

It is – as so often these days – a busy time for finance initiatives targeting developing regions. Indeed, two recent announcements relevant to such regions involve pan-African operator MTN.

Ethio Telecom has partnered with Awash Bank to launch Tila, a new digital credit, savings and device-financing service available through the operator’s Telebirr mobile money platform.

MTN MoMo South Africa is expanding its strategic collaboration with Mastercard in a bid to increase access to digital financial services and support greater financial inclusion across South Africa.

Singapore-headquartered global payment platform Thunesand pan-African financial institution Ecobank Group signed an agreement on Wednesday to collaborate on enabling instant cross-border payments for individuals and businesses across Sub-Saharan Africa, starting in Togo.

Digicel Fiji and SPBD Microfinance Fiji, a microfinance institution focused on rural village women, announced on Monday they will collaborate to deliver SPBD's services to customers through Digicel’s MyCash mobile money platform.