With South Africa, the continent’s second largest economy, increasingly more receptive to mobile money adoption, telco giant Vodacom hopes to attract at least 10 million SA subscribers into its M-Pesa service in the next five years.
Vodacom had originally launched M-Pesa in South Africa in 2010 but had to suspend it early this year following an extended period of poor adoption. It was only able to attract only one million South Africans into the mobile payment system.
M-Pesa, which means “Mobile Money” in Swahili, was originally launched in Kenya seven years ago by Safaricom and Vodafone – the parent company of Vodacom. The service allows client to send money via their mobile phone.
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The relaunch in South Africa will run on a “voucher system for topping up a mobile wallet” whereby customers will buy an M-Pesa Visa card at electronic points of sale (EPOS).
Herman Singh, Vodacom Mobile commerce managing executive, said “the registration process is significantly quicker than (M-Pesa) had the first time.”
The telecommunication company hopes to replicate the success seen in Kenya in its South African launch. In Kenya – where a large portion of its population lack basic banking facility – M-Pesa made an instant hit. Nearly two-thirds of the country’s population (about 80 million people) makes about eight million transactions per day.
Aside Kenya and South Africa, Vodacom M-Pesa have also been launched in other African countries including Egypt, Lesotho, Mozambique and Tanzania. (VENTURES AFRICA)
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