Tag: africa mobile payments

MFS Africa is enabling millions of consumers to embrace mobile payments

A startup comprised of 30 people is helping accelerate the growth of mobile commerce in Africa. In 2009, MFS Africa began offering a new mobile payments platform, allowing consumers to use their mobile devices to complete transactions. The platform was embraced by some of the continent’s largest telecommunications companies, which account for more than 500 million consumers combined. With smartphone penetration on the rise throughout Africa, the demand for mobile payments services is growing quickly.

Remittance is being supported by mobile devices, allowing more consumers to send money back home more easily

According to the World Bank, remittances, money that foreign workers send home to their families, had increased in sub-Saharan Africa by 2.2%, reaching some $32.9 billion. Many consumers are beginning to use their mobile devices to send money back home, seeing these devices as more convenient than traditional remittance processes. MFC Africa has been enabling consumers to participate in mobile commerce of all kinds, which has also made the remittance process easier for consumers overall.

MFC Africa allows those with low-end mobile devices to participate in mobile commerce

While smartphone penetration is on the rise in many African countries, the majority of mobile consumers have conventional, low-end devices. MFS Africa has developed a platform that these consumers can use, ensuring the mobile commerce is not solely the domain of those with smartphones and other high-tech gadgets. The firm has allowed some 55 million people in 17 African countries to connect to one another. Approximately 15% of its users are considered active, making two or more mobile payments every month.

As mobile payments grow, consumers are being targeted by groups that want to exploit financial information

The growth of mobile payments may represent some promising economic opportunities for companies operating in Africa. As consumers become more mobile-centric, businesses are feeling the need to provide mobile services to these consumers. One of the issues these organizations will have to overcome, however, is security. As mobile payments continue to grow, security is likely to become a more problematic issue for consumers.

The latest tech is becoming increasingly promising throughout the continent as other infrastructures lag.

The majority of Africa is faced with considerable struggles in terms of its internet coverage, electricity, governance, and even poverty, but when it comes to mobile technology, most of the continent is experiencing massive growth.

The latest types of mobile tech have proven to be extremely promising for the current African environment.

The whole region is proving to be a location that is offering a tremendous amount of opportunity for mobile technology innovation. This is particularly true when it comes to categories such as m-commerce and mobile payments. Entrepreneurs, particularly those in younger age brackets – are discovering new ways to be able to benefit from this type of tech, as they help others and make a profit at the same time.

The lives of millions of people in Africa are being changed in a meaningful way due to mobile technology.

In the category of mobile payments and banking, the number of players in the market is starting to grow, as companies start to recognize that there is a massive population that has previously be unbanked and that can be effectively served through their mobile phones.

Some of the largest success stories in the mobile sector in Africa include payment systems organizations such as Cellulant, as well as others like M-Pesa. These have made it possible for Africans to skip over the traditional shortfalls of their internet and electricity infrastructure in order to dive right into accounts that are based on the devices that the majority of them already have – cell phones.

The impact has been a large and measurable one. The economies of many countries – such as Kenya, for example – have continued to be mainly cash focused, but now include a sizeable participation in mobile payments, as well. Previously, credit and debit cards had been used by only the smallest sliver of people, leaving only cash. Now, cash is losing ground to mobile technology at an ever increasing rate. This has been helpful not only to consumers, but also to businesses, education systems, and other organizations of virtually every size.