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

Tuesday, April 21, 2015

WorldRemit is a United Kingdom-based online service company that lets people send money to friends and family in other countries.

Many mobile phone companies in Africa have in the last couple of years entered the financial services sector through launch of mobile money transfer companies — notably Mpesa in Kenya and Ecocash in Zimbabwe. Other local mobile money transfer companies are NetOne’s OneWallet and Telecel’s Textacash.

WorldRemit said there would be stagnation in the sector this year, but strong surge in three big countries would offset the drop.

“Stagnation in remittances to Nigeria was offset by strong growth in Kenya (10,7%), South Africa (7,1%), and Uganda (6,8%). Nigeria, which received $21 billion in 2014, accounts for two-thirds of remittances to the region,” WorldRemit said. It noted that mobile money transfers in the region still remained relatively high as the services grow.