Mobile commerce puts power in the hands of businesses, consumers and local economies says World Bank
Flutterwave, Africa’s payment technology company, has announced a mobile money partnership with MTN Group so that businesses in Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Rwanda, Uganda and Zambia can get paid by phone reports This Day Live.
The enabler is MTN’s Mobile Money system (AKA MoMo), fintech that gives consumers and businesses electronic wallets, which simplifies electronic transfers and payments while granting access to digital and financial services. According to the World Bank mobile money systems have boosted African economies by giving self employed people access to payments and credit facilities for the first time.
In June 2021 MTN MoMo had 48.9 million active users and 581,514 merchants. MoMo enables businesses to accept and make payments within the mobile money ecosystem. The new partnership will enable Flutterwave to offer MTN Mobile Money as a payment method to its business customers.
This year Africa has seen a surge in smartphone adoption, says GSMA, with half a billion subscribers across the continent’s 32 nations. GSMA predicts 50 per cent subscriber penetration by 2025. Sub-Saharan Africa alone is responsible for more than 45 per cent of the world’s mobile money accounts with the number of account holders exceeding half a billion by 2020, says Statista.
Momo deals Africans a better hand
The MTN and Flutterwave offering will positively contribute to this trend by increasing mobile money usage and penetration in Africa, according to Flutterwave CEO, Olugbenga Agboola. Local economies and livelihoods will surge while new opportunities are created for individuals and businesses across the continent, said Agboola.
“Africa has one of the highest growth rates for mobile money adoption and e-commerce in the world. It makes sense that we help provide a seamless payment method to support and ensure African businesses reap the full benefits of the e-commerce boom in the region. Our goal has always been to grow a new wave of prosperity in Africa by creating more avenues for businesses in Africa to accept payments. With this partnership, we can achieve this while creating endless possibilities for our customers,” said Agboola.
The new partnership will further expand on Flutterwave’s previous collaboration with MTN, beyond Uganda and Rwanda, with the potential of deepening adoption of digital payments and e-commerce in Africa, a sector expected to reach $29 billion by 2022, according to Statista.
MoMo is an enabler to accelerating digitised payments in Africa, said Serigne Dioum, group chief digital and fintech officer at MTN: “Building strong ecosystems through partnerships is central to our platform strategy.”