MTN to relaunch mobile money service in South Africa

MTN will launch a new mobile money service before the end of the quarter says MTN South Africa CEO Godfrey Motsa.

Speaking at the 2019 MyBroadBand Conference at Midrand in Johannesburg, Motsa said that there are 17 million people who are unbanked or underbanked in the country – meaning the time was right to re-enter the market.

While he noted that similar mobile money services had failed twice previously, Motsa said that its current offering has remained incredibly popular in the rest of Africa.

“We have over 30 million customers on mobile money already and made around R8 billion last year,” he said.

“While I often hear people say that ‘South Africa is not Africa’, there are still 17 million people that are unbanked and need to be serviced,” he said.

‘Relaunch’

MTN launched a mobile money platform in 2012 – attracting over 2 million customers.

However, the company shut the service down in 2016 citing ‘commercial viability’.

“The operating costs of providing a mobile money platform have become prohibitive. The decision by MTN SA to shelve its mobile money service does not signify an exit from financial services,” said MTN at the time.

Despite shutting down its mobile money service, MTN said it was still committed to being a relevant player in the financial services space.

SOURCE:BUSINESSTECH