Mobile News Africa

MTN MobileMoney expands into Africa

CAPE TOWN: Fundamo, a specialist mobile financial services provider, announced on Monday, 16 March2009, that the MTN Group will use Fundamo's Mobile Wallet solution to power its MTN MobileMoney service. The service will be available to its subscriber base across 21 countries in Africa.

The 9.7m USD deal, and will supply basic financial services to MTN mobile subscribers in largely unbanked populations of sub-Saharan Africa and Middle-East. The deal is an extension of the existing relationship between MTN and Fundamo; expanding MTN MobileMoney from South Africa into 20 additional countries.

MTN MobileMoney is a SIM-based, version of Fundamo's Mobile Wallet Solution ver 3.1. Users are safeguarded against theft and fraud as MobileMoney uses HSM technologies providing ATM-level security, and a PIN system to prevent sensitive information from residing on the handset.

The solution is compliant with all banking and FICA regulations, enabling banks to log into the system and manage the banking elements of the service while MTN focuses on customer acquisition and retention.

MTN MobileMoney doesn't require users to setup a bank account, but offers money transfer, mobile payments, balance checking and mobile purchasing services, and the ability to buy airtime. Users have the option to receive a branded MTN MobileMoney debit card that can be used to withdraw cash from ATMs.

“We selected Fundamo for two key reasons; because they could support the concurrent multi-country roll-out and aggressive time to market that we required for our project and because their solution is mature, scalable and well tested in developing markets, as well as being designed from the ground up to be fully compliant with all banking regulations. With Fundamo's future proof solution we can take full advantage of the mobile payment market,” says Dare Okoudjou, Head of MobileMoney International Development for MTN Group.

For More Information:
Contact Fundamo
Debra Ogilvie
Phone: +27 21 970 7662(p)
Email: debrao@fundamo.com

The CC Group for Fundamo
Paul Nolen /Alex Sowden
Phone: +44 (0)118 939 5900
Email: fundamo@the-CC-group.com

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