Telecoms firm Orange to extend mobile money services in Western Africa

Orange said the company planned to extend the reach of its Orange Money service to increase international transfers across the West African Economic and Monetary Union area.

The company said it will also “pursue its development” of 3.75G mobile internet technology, “where it was the first operator to launch and is today the uncontested leader in Burkina Faso”.

Chief executive officer of Orange in Burkina Faso Ben Cheick Haidara said: “Customers in Burkina Faso are more demanding and the way they use digital services has evolved. We are at a decisive turning point in the development of the telecoms market. Our ambition is to continue the work accomplished in recent years in the mobile money and mobile internet fields to make Orange the leading partner for Burkina Faso’s digital transformation.”

The launch comes less than one year after the closing of Orange’s acquisition of telecoms operator Bharti Airtel, together with Orange Cote d’Ivoire.

Orange is present in 21 countries in Africa and the Middle East, where it has more than 120 million customers. Orange Money is currently available in 17 countries and has more than 30 million customers.

In 2014, Orange announced plans for users of its mobile money services in Africa to be able to use their mobile phones to withdraw cash from their Bank of Africa bank accounts and allow customers of both organisations to transfer funds between their bank and Orange Money accounts, and to pay for goods and services and purchase airtime credit without going to the bank or the shop. The use of mobile financial services in the region has grown steadily since.

In 2016, a report published by the global mobile operators' association GSMA (73-page / 7.83 MB PDF) said “sub-Saharan Africa continues to account for the majority of live mobile money services (52%)”. GSMA said the growth in mobile money services in 2015 across West Africa “was dramatic, with Burkina Faso, Mali, Ghana, and Cote d’Ivoire all contributing to the substantive regional turnaround”.

Research by market analysts Ovum has forecast that the total number of mobile subscriptions on the African continent will rise to 1.33 billion at the end of 2021.

According to the African Development Bank (AfDB) and the Alliance for Financial Inclusion (AFI), “financial services offered through mobile technology have revolutionised and accelerated the economic landscape in agriculture, energy, microfinance, gender access, and small- and medium-enterprise financing in many African countries”.

However, the AfDB said 350 million people in sub-Saharan Africa are still excluded from formal financial services. This includes approximately 125 million farmers that receive cash payments for the sale of agricultural products owing to lack of access to quality and appropriate financial services.

Earlier this year, the AfDB and the AFI signed an agreement to step up mobile banking services in Africa by strengthening “the technical capacity of financial regulators and policy-makers across the continent to implement substantive policy reforms to advance financial inclusion”.

According to recent data from money transfer service WorldRemit, transfers to mobile money accounts make up 93% of the company’s transactions to Kenya – “showing that Kenyans continue to be early adopters of innovative technology, even when abroad”.

WorldRemit said in January 2017, its customers transferred more than $140 million (at annualised rate) to Kenya.