Kenya’s Safaricom on Monday announced plans that it is about entering a more crowded market in West Africa, as it aims to expand its mobile money transfer service, M-Pesa to West Africa.
The move is part of a deal with Access Holdings – the parent company of Africa’s largest bank, and a Nigerian wealth management group called Coronation Group.
When the service was launched in Kenya in 2007 it revolutionised banking and money services in the country.
There are more new mobile money customers in the region than anywhere else in the world, a recent report found.
In Nigeria, for example, less than half of all adults are said to have a bank account, meaning many rely on mobile money services such as Palmpay and Opay.