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So how does Mama Money offer their service at 5% whereas Mukuru, arguably the most popular service over the South Africa-Zimbabwe corridor, charges double this? From our experience of testing these two services, we noted a few key differences in how they operate which is likely to drive the cost differential between the two services. These differences include: · Mama Money maintain low overhead costs. Mama Money operate a single branch in Cape Town whereas Mukuru operate at least seven of their own branches nationally and they also operate through the Inter Africa branch network · Mama Money offer limited support beyond registration. In comparison, Mukuru operate a large 24 hour call centre and live chat function that supports and facilitates transfers. These support functions are no doubt very expensive to operate · Mama Money have a single partner organisation in Zimbabwe. Mama Money only have a single partner in Zimbabwe, CABS bank, whereas Mukuru have partnerships with a number of banks, retailers and mobile wallets. That said, if Mama Money’s Facebook comments are anything to go by, they may be adding more partner organisations in Zimbabwe, so this factor may soon be invalidated So while Mama Money’s competitors charge considerably higher fees, in the case of Mukuru, these higher fees are associated with some value-added benefits for the customer, for instance 24hr support on transactions for the sender and, for the recipient, a choice in how to receive the money.

African remittance provider Mukuru has launched a grocery service that will give foreign national workers living in South Africa, as well as any South Africa-based customer, the ability to send groceries to families and communities in Zimbabwe.

As one of the largest money transfer operators on the continent, the grocery service represents an extension of the company’s existing offering. At a time when many Zimbabweans are struggling to obtain basic commodities, Mukuru Groceries aims to help ensure that families are provided for and given the best chance to remain healthy throughout the crisis period.

“In addition to price fluctuations for basic goods, people also face the uncertainty of whether certain goods will be available - as many Zimbabwean retailers have struggled to replenish stock,” adds Jury. “By enabling South Africa-based workers to pay for a pre-agreed basket of goods for families in Zimbabwe, we are removing these uncertainties and providing families with peace of mind during this immensely tough period.”

Biometrics is another sort of key differentiator in the space for increased security and ease of sign-up. Africa is ready for digitisation, and we have already seen good traction in SA with our Mukuru Card product. Mukuru is investing in technology to support customers as they digitise in the coming years, across our footprint.

Ensuring that the core stability and functional capability brought about by the technologies and coding languages mentioned earlier is of paramount importance. We are relaunching our app and that’s been built on the Flutter framework. The app is important because it allows for content rich customer engagements.It will also enable us to ingest/scan customer documents in real-time, process card payments securely so that customers can create and pay for orders in one step as opposed to two, as well as allowing for a host of additional customer facing services and capabilities to be deployed.The core DNA of our business is making sure that it’s super simple and that somebody with a feature phone is not precluded from using the service, because that is the essence of where our customer base is at, so we want modular technological capabilities that we can use in any conditions.

Mobile payments are a key payment method in the Middle East and Africa, used by over 50% of the population, most of which is underbanked, and TPAY MOBILE leverages direct carrier billing and wallet billing to unlock access to these customers across 24 countries for its merchant partners.TPAY MOBILE is currently present in Egypt, UAE, KSA, Palestine, Jordan, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman, Tunisia, Iraq, Algeria, Morocco, Turkey, Libya, Sri Lanka, Nigeria, Tanzania, Kenya, Ghana, Mozambique, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

The Company is headquartered in the UAE, with teams based in Egypt. Our shareholders are – Helios Investment Partners , the leading Africa-focused private investment firm, and A15 , the Middle East’s leading tech investment fund.

Money transfer service Hello Paisa has dropped remittance fees by half on every transaction to Zimbabwe, and is also offering digital banking accounts with zero transaction fees, to assist migrants impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.The fintech says cost-effective remittances are an essential service as they are a lifeline for the migrants and those they support across borders.