NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Monday, April 27, 2015

MTN Rwanda, one of Rwanda’s leading mobile network operators, Sunday announced the launch of a pioneering cross-border Mobile Money remittance service between Rwanda and Kenya.

It is expected that the new service to be launched in May 2015, will allow MTN subscribers in Rwanda to send money from their mobile money accounts to Safaricom’s mpesa payment subscribers in Kenya and vice versa.

The system to be launched integrates currency conversion, whereby money is sent in either Rwandan Francs and Kenyan Shillings and delivered already converted into in the currency of the recipient’s country.

Commenting on the new move, the head of mobile money department at MTN Rwanda, Nornan Munyampundu said that this would be the first innovative product of its kind that allows dual currency international mobile wallet to mobile wallet transfers with currency conversion included.

Once the remittance is received, customers can use the funds to access all the services and benefits that MTN Mobile Financial Services offer. These include airtime top ups, payments for water, electricity, TV and transportation, transfers to bank accounts, cash withdrawals at any Tigo agent across the country, and convenient transfers to other mobile money users.