Customers of MTN Mobile Money and M-Pesa in East Africa will be able to transfer money to each other following an agreement between MTN Group and Vodafone Group to interconnect their mobile money services.
This interconnect collaboration between the region's two biggest mobile money operators will enable convenient and affordable international remittances between M-Pesa customers in Kenya, Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Mozambique, and MTN Mobile Money customers in Uganda, Rwanda and Zambia.
Under the terms of their memorandum of understanding, MTN and Vodafone will also share best practice and work together to define the rules and standards of mobile-based remittances in Africa.
Vodafone director of mobile money, Michael Joseph, says the group's agreement with MTN to connect mobile money wallets in East Africa is an example of co-operation and interoperability between competing mobile operators. "By working together, we will deliver cheaper, faster money transfers."
Serigne Dioum, MTN Group's head of mobile financial services, says the move comes after "successful launches" in Ivory Coast and Benin in West Africa. "We are looking enthusiastically at the collaboration with Vodafone in East Africa. Together, we aim to build a scalable model that will accelerate remittance roll-out across the continent."
In SA, mobile money has not seen as much traction as other African countries, prompting operators - specifically, Vodacom and MTN - to reassess their mobile money strategies.
Last year, Vodacom re-launched its mobile money offering, M-Pesa, after assessing the local market in depth. The company acknowledged it had erred in following a "copy and paste" approach based on the successes other countries like Tanzania and Kenya had seen.
The revised M-Pesa service, which Vodacom CEO Shameel Joosub said at the time had functionality at its heart, included a number of entirely new elements, such as a chip and PIN protected Visa card, and a voucher system to upload cash.
The new strategy also focused largely on distribution, re-launching in July with more than 8 000 agents (about 10 times more than the product originally launched with) at both informal outlets and at major retail partners.
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