According to the South African-headquartered telco operator, the frustration experienced by around 11 million South Africans who do not have access to financial services will now be a thing of the past, with the launch of MTN SA’s mobile money service MoMo.
A recent report on the State of the ICT Sector in SA 2019 by the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa’s (ICASA’s), crevealed that South Africa’s smartphone penetration has nearly doubled in the last two years and is now sitting at over 80%.
Felix Kamenga, chief officer, MTN SA Mobile Financial Services, said: “It is stats like this that support MTN’s continued commitment to make a positive social impact and unlock economic transformation, by harnessing the power of technology.”
Kamenga said at the heart of renewed venture into the improved mobile money space in South Africa is MTN’s passion to provide value-added services that meet our customers’ needs. “As part of this, a major focus area is to provide our customers with secure, reliable and accessible financial services,” he said.
Kamenga observed that the local market is characterised by significant population growth, a youthful demographic, and relatively high levels of data and digital adoption. “We believe that all these factors, coupled with the unrivalled quality and coverage of our network, bodes well for us to offer a viable mobile money service in South Africa,” he added.
MoMo is available to all South African citizens, regardless of the network they are using. The platform, which is powered by UBank, enables customers to use their mobile phones, and other devices, to send and receive money, purchase airtime and prepaid electricity, and pay for their municipal bills and DSTV subscriptions. This makes MoMo appealing to even the banked community who might not enjoy the burden of withdrawing cash from their accounts.
MoMo is available to customers who use both smartphones, and basic feature phones, making it a solution that can be used by anyone.
Kamenga said that providing customers with peace of mind and the confidence that they can transact safely was a top priority when designing the MoMo platform.
“The beauty of MoMo is that we have struck a balance between building in world-class safety and security measures without compromising the ease of use and simplicity of the platform,” he remarked.
MoMo uses biometrics like voice and facial recognition to authenticate users. The details of MoMo customers are cross-checked with the population database at the Department of Home Affairs. In addition to this, the user’s funds are also protected by a PIN. If the MoMo customer loses their phone, their money is still safe.
According to Kamenga, MoMo currently has about 50 dedicated agents that are based at selected MTN-branded stores.
