Ericsson says its mobile payment service partnership with MTN has reaped rewards, with the MTN MoMo mobile money service reaching a milestone of 300% transaction growth over the last three years.
According to the company, MoMo registrations and usage over the last few years − in services such as peer-to-peer remittances, and value-added functionalities like purchasing prepaid electricity and airtime − have grown considerably.
In 2020, MTN relaunched its MoMo platform locally, about four years after the service failed to take off in SA.
This after the telco announced in September 2016 that it was decommissioning the MoMo offering in the country due to lack of commercial viability.
However, in 2019, MTN signed a mobile money partnership agreement with Ericsson, in a deal that would make the mobile wallet service widely available on the continent and enable MTN to respond rapidly to customer preferences.
Speaking to ITWeb on the side-lines of the AfricaCom 2022 event, hosted in Cape Town this week, Hossam Kandeel, VP and head of global customer unit for MTN and customer unit MTN Africa at Ericsson, pointed out the partnership signifies the two companies’ commitment to developing new technologies that will benefit society and contribute to the GDP of Africa’s digital economy.
“Mobile money is one of the biggest things to look out for in Africa’s fintech space at the moment. Over the last three years, we have seen a fantastic growth in demand of the MoMo service, both in South Africa and across the continent, and the number of transactions has increased by 300%.
“So, the pandemic has pushed many people to not only adopt digital ways of working but also digital ways of transacting, on a continent which still has a large number of unbanked people,” noted Kandeel.
While Ericsson and MTN have a long-standing partnership, focusing on other verticals, the MoMo revenue-sharing collaboration involves Ericsson integrating its e-wallet APIs into the MoMo platform, to add the Ericsson Wallet Platform across the operator's footprint.
Ericsson provides MTN with a secure and efficient m-commerce solution that includes systems integration, operational support and solution development, noted Kandeel.
The Ericsson Wallet Platform allows users to store, transfer and withdraw money, paying merchants and utility providers, as well as using financial services like savings and loans.
He pointed out mobile money has been a key enabler of financial inclusion and development in Africa; one example being Ericsson’s collaboration with Orange Middle East and Africa, to deploy Ericsson’s mobile financial services solution, which has demonstrated great success.
“Last year’s Ericsson consumer report, which looks at how Africans are adopting mobile money solutions, highlights the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on mobile financial services uptake, with 54% of consumers saying they use mobile financial services transactions more now,” concluded Kandeel.
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