Mobile money services receive success in Africa (Africa)

The success of mobile banking services in Africa can be gauged by a report by FNB, highlighting a 150 per cent hike in transaction growth for its cellphone banking service and 1384 per cent growth for eWallet, for the month of December 2011 when compared to the previous December.

The report reveals that customers conducted 2.4 million cellphone banking transactions during December 2011 in Botswana, Namibia, Zambia, Swaziland and Lesotho, to the value of US$ 27.9 million as compared to US$ 128,485 transactions in December 2010.

Botswana, recorded over 1.3 million cellphone banking transactions, representing a 126 per cent increase year-on-year. Further, Namibia recorded year-on-year growth of 155 per cent, with Zambia at 308 per cent and Swaziland at 227 per cent.

As per the report, Ravesh Ramlakan, CEO, FNB Cellphone Banking Solutions, has said that the increasing confidence amongst consumers in using their handsets for money transcations have greatly aided in the adoption of mobile money services in the country. He added that innovation has played a key role in growing cellphone banking across Africa. Further, their ability to adapt the service for use on any cellphone has been an important driver of this growth.

Users can conduct a number of transactions using FNB Cellphone Banking, including transferring money between their own FNB accounts, buying prepaid airtime and making third party payments.

The report reveals that, FNB eWallet has generated 407,110 original sends in its four African Operations (Botswana, Swaziland, Lesotho and Zambia) as at the end of December 2011. In Botswana FNB eWallet, saw an increase in original sends of 1236 per cent year-on-year from December 2010 to December 2011.

Yolande van Wyk, CEO, FNB eWallet Solutions has said that although eWallet has only recently been introduced to markets outside South Africa, the service has demonstrated strong potential for continued growth into the future. He claims that a country like Zambia for example has 5.4 million mobile phone users and a large informal sector, making a solution such as eWallet ideal in helping bridge the financial services gap between the banked and the unbanked. eWallet reduces both risk and cost, and in African markets they have found this to be essential in any financial product offering. Simple, convenient and affordable financial services represent the future of banking in Africa.

eWallet allows FNB customers to send money to anyone within the borders of the country in which the service operates. The convenience lies in the fact that the recipient does not need to have a bank account. The money is transferred instantly and the recipient uses a pin code sent to their cellphone to access the cash from FNB ATMs.