Standard Chartered, Airtel Ghana partner to bring mobile wallets to Ghana

Standard Chartered Bank has partnered with Airtel Ghana through the Airtel Money platform to launch Straight2Bank Wallet in Ghana, expanding the coverage of its mobile wallet service in Africa.

First introduced in Kenya in 2013, Straight2Bank Wallet enables corporations, governments and development organisations to make cashless payments to both banked and unbanked individuals. Especially relevant in emerging markets with large rural areas, mobile wallets provide an efficient and secure alternative to onerous and risk-prone cash payments.

With the introduction of this new payment channel, Standard Chartered’s corporate clients in Ghana can now use the Bank’s Straight2Bank electronic banking platform to make payments directly into an individual’s Airtel Money mobile wallet. This allows clients to effectively reach out to their beneficiaries with timely payments, while mitigating the risks of fraud and theft associated with cash payments.

“The Airtel Money Wallet serves to extend the reach of the Straight2Bank Wallet service to mobile phones thus providing a seamless, safe and instant extension of making single and multiple payments to employees or suppliers in a single batch. We, at Airtel Ghana, are very excited about the service and the partnership with Standard Chartered Bank. As technology and financial services continue to merge we have no doubt that this partnership will be a great step towards achieving Ghana’s goal of attaining a cashless economy,” Lucy Quist, Managing Director of Airtel Ghana said.

Kennedy Mubita, Head of Transaction Banking Standard Chartered Bank West Africa commented, “In partnership with Airtel, we are proud to be the first bank to introduce mobile wallet services to Ghanaian companies. Mobile wallets not only bring operational and cost efficiencies to our clients, but also mean individuals receive their funds through secure channels – another way we are supporting Ghana’s Central Bank to foster a cash-lite economy.”

Philip Panaino, Head of Transaction Banking Africa added, “Ghana is the 5th African market to enjoy the benefits of Straight2Bank Wallet within the Bank’s global roll-out strategy. Since its introduction, we have seen a steady increase in the volume of transactions processed via Straight2Bank Wallet, demonstrating the ease and convenience this product brings for our corporate clients, and reiterating our promise to be Here for good.”

To date Standard Chartered has delivered the benefits of Straight2Bank mobile wallets to corporates in 10 markets within the Bank’s global footprint, namely Kenya, Nigeria, Tanzania, Zambia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, the Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia and Vietnam.

Airtel Money is an innovative, safe and secure mobile wallet which enables a complete suite of services like money transfer, bill payments, and recharge on the move from a mobile phone. It caters to all segments of the society, from the unbanked to the under banked and to the net-savvy and evolved customers. Today, with national distribution of over 13,000 registered agents, 500 merchant outlets, 80 shops that accept Airtel Money, 7 Partner banks and over 215 ATMs nationwide and more than 2 million customers, Airtel is one of the leading mobile money providers in Ghana and is playing a vital role in enabling financial inclusion and m-commerce.

SOURCE:STARRFM