UPDATE: MTN To Offer Western Union Money Transfers
November 10 2010 - 9:20AM
Dow Jones News
MTN Group Ltd. (MTN.JO), Africa's largest cellphone-network
operator, said Wednesday it has signed a pact with Western Union
Co. (WU) that will allow its users to send and receive money
transfers using mobile accounts via their handsets.
The commercial agreement covers the rollout of the money
transfer service in the 21 African and Middle Eastern countries
where MTN operates, beginning with Uganda where MTN said it has
more than one million customers registered for its MobileMoney
product. It said Uganda receives nearly $500 million in remittances
every year, making up 3% of its gross domestic product, according
to the World Bank.
"After bringing domestic financial services to many of our
customers, we will now enable customers to receive money from
abroad on their mobile phones to take out at their convenience with
their local merchant, send it to family or pay a bill," said Pieter
Verkade, MTN executive for MobileMoney.
MTN has, in partnership with local banks, rolled out its
MobileMoney service in Benin, Cameroon, Ghana, Guinea Bissau, Ivory
Coast, Rwanda, South Africa and Uganda. It allows subscribers to
send money domestically, buy airtime for their phone and make basic
utility payments using a cellphone.
-By Robb M. Stewart, Dow Jones Newswires; +27 11 783 7848;
robb.stewart@dowjones.com
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