from MARIA MACHARIA in Nairobi, Kenya
NAIROBI, (CAJ News) – MOBILE money service, M-Pesa, has reached 50 million monthly active customers, thereby strengthening its position as Africa’s largest financial technology offering.
It is now available in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Egypt, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Mozambique and Tanzania since launch in Kenya more than 14 years ago.
“We are delighted to celebrate this remarkable milestone with our more than 50 million customers across the continent,” said Sitoyo Lopokoiyit, Managing Director – M-Pesa Africa.
“As an honour to this achievement, we are reiterating our commitment and deepening our focus on more innovations that will further transform the lives of our customers.”
The milestone comes just 18 months after Safaricom and Vodacom launched the M-Pesa Africa Joint Venture to accelerate growth of the service across the continent.
In 2007, Safaricom and Vodafone launched M-Pesa in Kenya as a way for customers to instantly send money to each other.
The service is said to have largely contributed to the growth of formal financial inclusion across the continent which has gone up by up to 55 percent.
Collectively, more than 500 000 businesses transact more than US$7 billion (€5,8 billion) monthly on M-Pesa.
M-Pesa has equally expanded its partnerships in an aim to boost remittances which empower customers to send and receive money across more than 200 countries and territories.
– CAJ News