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

Friday, October 16, 2015

In yet another exciting development in mobile money innovation, MTN Rwanda, the country’s telecommunications leader has announced that it has opened its corridor with Safaricom in Kenya that will see MTN Mobile Money and M-PESA users send and receive money seamlessly and affordably between the two countries.

This comes just a month after the Company introduced cross-border transactions between MTN Rwanda and MTN Uganda as a move aimed at deepening financial inclusion and boosting regional trade.

Speaking about both partnerships with MTN Uganda and Safaricom, MTN Rwanda CEO Gunter Engling said that the service will enable convenient and affordable regional remittances.

“We are determined to strengthen the path we are taking towards financial inclusion in Rwanda and I believe that this new partnership will be a powerful driver of economic growth,” he said. “We are witnessing huge technological changes that have the potential to usher in a new era of financial inclusion which we are determined to be a part of.”

“The launch marks a key milestone in the realisation of our partnership with Vodafone, wherein we aim to build a scalable model that will accelerate remittance roll-out across Africa. We expect considerable volumes on this corridor, as it will leverage successes of MTN Mobile Money in Rwanda and Uganda, and M-PESA in Kenya,” said Serigne Dioum, MTN Group Head of Mobile Financial Services.”

To send money to Uganda or Kenya, MTN Rwanda customers will be required to dial *830# from their handsets and follow prompts where they will also view the equivalent amount to send based on prevailing foreign exchange rates. They will dial *182# and go to Pending Approvals. Upon sending they will receive a confirmation message that the transaction has gone through.