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Since the launch of the partnership in June 2020, WorldRemit customers in over 50 countries – including the United Kingdom, United States, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and Europe – have been able to send money to their loved ones in Zimbabwe who are in need of financial resources as the coronavirus pandemic draws out. Beneficiaries can collect their WorldRemit remittance at any of Mukuru’s 150+ orange booths and multiple branches located across Zimbabwe in both rural and peri-urban areas.The cash pick up service is operational six days a week and customers will not have to endure long queues. They can collect their cash quickly and safely.

Driven by the belief that everyone deserves the benefits of a modern connected life, MTN is ramping up its efforts to enhance access to digital and financial services for its customers.

The company’s latest Fintech innovation is a mobile remittance application, MTN Homeland, aimed at facilitating money and airtime transfers from Europe to Africa and parts of the Middle East.

Fawry gets CBE nod to partner with state-owned bank for transfer service: E-payments platform Fawry has received preliminary approval from the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) to set up a bank transfer service for Egyptian expats; the service will be offered in partnership with an unnamed state-owned bank, CEO Ashraf Sabry tells Al Mal. Fawry has been in talks with several local and regional banks — including the National Bank of Egypt (NBE), Bank of Alexandria, Banque du Caire, and ADIB — to set up the remittances service for Egyptians living in the Gulf since last year, former managing director Mohamed Okasha said in December, saying at the time that the service would initially be rolled out in the UAE, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia. Remittances, particularly from expats in the GCC, are a key source of foreign currency for Egypt and helped to narrow its current account deficit through the worst of the pandemic in 3Q2019-2020.

BelCash is a company known to have introduced an advanced use of technology to provide customized solutions in convenient payments to vital government services in 2010. It has since refurbished what was once a bureaucratic paper system which inconvenienced millions of people who depend on it.

With Ethiopia moving to a strategy which helps embrace the wisdom of solar energy within the country and play catch-up to successes achieved in neighboring nations such as Kenya and Rwanda; HelloSolar in partnership with BelCash – the mobile banking platform system – is set to introduce a pay-as-you-go system for the nation’s off-grid population with affordable solar home system.

This is a jump-the-queue strategy for the company in offering such a system and becoming a pioneer in a country whose majority of population still lack basic energy. In addition, the company has launched an International Remittance payment system, to allow members of the Diaspora to pay from anywhere in the world with a credit card and convenience local clients.

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The chatbot will also enable 24/7 instant customer service for its customers across Africa and Europe. Daniel Howard, CTO for SimbaPay, says: “Another major objective we achieved with the chatbot service is that it also works without internet. This means customers with a mobile phone, even a basic phone without internet access, can access the SimbaPay chatbot using SMS.” Together with Interswitch, SimbaPay says its B2B division offers its instant remittance technology to banks and telcos who want to provide their customers with the service. To send money with an SMS users need the recipient’s phone number and the chatbot will automatically obtain the recipient bank account or mobile money details.

Flutterwave and Simbapay are shining examples of this recent development. With Mergims, Sawapay and Sendwave in their back chasing them.

Founded by Nyasinga Onyancha, Simbapay is in London and caters to Kenyan and Nigerian recipients.Countries that can use the service include; the UK, Ireland, Italy, Spain, France and Germany.The platform allows money transfer to a bank account and mobile wallet like M-pesa, Paga or Airtel Money.

Cassava FinTech is a pan-African business using an integrated model to drive financial inclusion and digital transactions across the continent. Our core operations in Mobile Money, Social Payments Services, Digital Banking, International Remittances and Mobile Micro Insurance with presence in Zimbabwe, South Africa, Burundi, Lesotho and UK and partnerships in other African countries.

This is why the Vodacom-Safaricom duo has created a joint venture with full powers to make M-Pesa a “super-app” to provide for various needs such as booking taxis, making various appointments or paying for various services by mobile phone.

Safaricom launched new services as early as 2013, with M-Shwari, Fuliza and KCB M-Pesa came later to provide savings and micro-loans. By 2019, these “apps within apps” will account for two-thirds of M-Pesa’s revenues (84.4 billion shillings in total). “Remittances are still performing well and are up 14.6 per cent over the previous year,” said Sateesh Kamath, Safaricom’s chief financial officer.

We’re so pleased to give recipients this great opportunity to start a business that will help them to support their families and become more financially stable. The franchisees have the option to expand these businesses and potentially create job opportunities for members of the wider community. This underlines our commitment to helping Overseas Filipino Workers to support those dearest to them back home," said Earl Melivo, Country Director for the Philippines at WorldRemit.

“Since Sub-Saharan Africa is traditionally considered a challenging region from the remittance perspective, we are glad to extend our service to an institution that just recently has satisfied the scrutiny of the local regulator,” said Dima Kats, CEO of Clear Junction. “Our correspondent account service will lower the entry barrier for Zeepay when rolling out the payment collection in the EU and UK.”

“Since Sub-Saharan Africa is traditionally considered a challenging region from the remittance perspective, we are glad to extend our service to an institution that just recently has satisfied the scrutiny of the local regulator,” said Dima Kats, CEO of Clear Junction. “Our correspondent account service will lower the entry barrier for Zeepay when rolling out the payment collection in the EU and UK.”

ape Town-based remittance and money transfer provider Mukuru has reached over seven million customers globally and is looking to extend its footprint across Southern Africa.Mukuru enables affordable and reliable financial services to underserved communities. Its remittance service offers customers the opportunity to send or receive money, with users in over 20 countries across Africa and Asia. Services include sending cash for collection, bank account top-up or mobile wallet transfers.Additional offerings include funeral cover, the Mukuru Money Card and various payment solutions targeted at businesses in emerging markets. Transactions can be conducted either physically at any of its network branches, or via its digital platforms, mobile app, USSD or WhatsApp.While the company operates in over 20 countries, the mobile app is currently only available for download in SA and it is preparing to roll it out broadly across Botswana, Malawi, Zimbabwe, Zambia, the UK and EU over the next 12 months.

Digital money transfer service WorldRemit has partnered with Chinese smartphone maker Huawei [HWT.UL] to enable the international transfer of money across Huawei’s mobile services in Africa, the companies said on Tuesday.

“International remittance is a very important mobile money service in Africa, and our partnership with WorldRemit will bring international remittances directly to Huawei’s customers across the continent,” David Chen, Vice-President of Huawei Southern Africa, said in a statement.

M-Pesa was launched in 2007, and it’s still going strong. The concept of a phone-based money transfer service originated back in 2002, when researchers realized the popularity of the market for phone airtime — individuals in a handful of African nations often transferred it to friends and family for subsequent use or resale.

When M-Pesa (launched by Safaricom) made its debut a few years later, it had initially been conceived as a solution for microfinancing — allowing institutions to distribute and collect loan payments without the hassle of cash. However, during this pilot, its widespread adoption in a myriad of alternative use cases caused the company to reconsider and relaunch with a focus on ensuring individuals could send money to their families and execute payments.

A combination of resilience and robust digital technologies resulted in tech start-up Mukuru emerging from humble beginnings to becoming one of Africa’s fintech powerhouses.So says Sandy Rheeder, CIO of Mukuru, one of Africa’s largest remittance service providers.Mukuru was launched in the mid-2000s. As Zimbabwe went through hyperinflation, the platform enabled customers in the diaspora to send fuel and grocery vouchers back home via SMS. Eventually, Mukuru started offering money remittances.

The remittances services were declared an essential service during the lockdown restrictions to curb the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic.South Africa moved to level 3 lockdown late in December after the country breached the one million mark of confirmed Covid-19 cases while Zimbabwe went into a hard lockdown as the entire country was declared a coronavirus hotspot as the infection rates drastically surged in all the country’s regions.“We remain cautiously optimistic we can continue in the year ahead to layer new products and services onto our platform to unlock value and move our customers up along the financial inclusion curve.“We will also constantly look to build our network and footprint across Africa and beyond, which will allow us to grow our business not only in terms of the breadth of relevant products and services we offer, but in the depth of customer markets we serve,” said Jury.