MTN South Africa teams up with World Bank’s IFC on mobile money

JOHANNESBURG: MTN South Africa said on Wednesday it had entered into a $2 million partnership with the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation (IFC) to expand its mobile money business.

Mobile financial services have become a significant part of African telecom operators’ businesses since Kenya’s Safaricom pioneered an alternative to banks with M-Pesa in 2007.

Like other telcos, MTN’s mobile money (MoMo) business saw a jump in transaction values and customer numbers during the COVID-19 pandemic, as movement restrictions and avoidance of physical cash pushed people towards mobile money platforms.