Global credit card company Visa and Africa's largest cellular operator, MTN, have partnered to introduce a new Visa prepaid account mobile service as an extension of MTN Mobile Money in developing countries.
The product is a result of Visa's recent acquisition of local mobile money platform Fundamo, which has now been integrated with Visa's global payment network, VisaNet.
Together with MTN Mobile Money, the new service will allow consumers to get a special Visa card which will be linked to their Mobile Money account, and which essentially has the same payment functionality as a bank card.
Visa says the service will allow users to extend their mobile money payment functionality by allowing them to send money to each other, send and receive international remittances, withdraw funds from a Visa ATM and make purchases at merchants or online.
According to MTN and Visa, the product has been designed to meet the needs of the unbanked and under-banked.
Hannes van Rensburg, CEO of Fundamo, says: “In the past, issuing Visa cards to unbanked customers has been a challenge because the availability of Visa services has been limited. But now, this brings the Visa service together with the already well-established ecosystem of the MTN Mobile Money platform.
“We are very confident that this will reach the critical mass to bring the benefit of digital money to a large number of customers who previously wouldn't have had access to it.”
Global interoperability
Christian de Faria, MTN group chief commercial officer, says, while it has always been somewhat of a struggle for consumers to find a merchant that would accept a mobile wallet payment, the partnership with Visa means MTN Mobile Money customers can take advantage of Visa's global interoperability.
Van Rensburg adds: “The fact that this card is linked to the user's phone, means the security features are significantly enhanced. Their transactions are secured through their Mobile Money PIN, which is entered into the user's phone rather than the payment terminal.”
MTN Mobile Money has been rolled out in 12 countries so far and currently has 5.7 million registered customers.
“The launch of this product with Visa doesn't only enhance our current mobile money offering, but also represents yet another crucial milestone in our journey to bring value-adding services to the growing population of mobile phone users in our markets,” says De Faria.
According to Visa, in the last 10 years, 100 million people have been newly 'banked' through mobile services that offer consumers basic financial services, but which are limited in geographic reach.
“Mobile technology has become the single most important driver of financial inclusion that is enabling financial institutions, mobile network operators and Visa to connect unbanked consumers to each other and the global economy,” says head of product for Visa, Jim McCarthy.
Visa says it is looking to target developing countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America with its new mobile-based prepaid product.
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