GSMA Announces Launch of National Interoperable Mobile Money Service across Madagascar

The GSMA today announced that all three mobile money providers in Madagascar – Airtel Money, mVola and Orange Money – are rolling out interoperable mobile money services across the entire country. This launch makes Madagascar the second market in Africa, following Tanzania, where all mobile money providers are making their services interoperable, allowing transactions to flow seamlessly across all mobile money providers.

“The launch of interoperable mobile money services across all networks in both Madagascar and Tanzania underscores the mobile industry’s commitment to delivering life-enhancing financial services to consumers. Greater financial inclusion will empower the underserved and drive economic growth across the country,” said John Giusti, Chief Regulatory Officer, GSMA.

“In Madagascar and Tanzania, there are more mobile money accounts than bank accounts. Traditional “bricks-and-mortar” banking infrastructure tends to be far from poorer communities, therefore interoperable money services will deliver significant long-term benefits to citizens, extending the range of digital financial services provided and ultimately serving as a safer and more reliable replacement for cash as a means of payment in day-to-day transactions.”

Safety and Convenience

More than a billion people in developing markets with no formal bank account do have access to a mobile phone. Mobile money leverages the ubiquity of the mobile phone and the extensive coverage of mobile networks to offer customers safer, more secure and convenient access to financial services.

The GSMA Mobile Money programme is closely working with mobile operators and industry stakeholders to drive a robust mobile money ecosystem by providing tools and insights to help deployments scale, as well as supporting the creation of enabling regulatory environments to expand digital financial inclusion. The programme is also supporting the efforts of mobile money operators to implement interoperability of mobile money services, and to expand the digital ecosystem by facilitating the integration of third parties to mobile money schemes.