Vodacom and Safaricom in a bid to buy M-Pesa brand from parent company Vodafone

Vodacom

Vodacom and Safaricom are in the process of buying the M-Pesa brand from parent company Vodafone, in a deal reportedly worth over R190 million. Vodacom mentioned the deal in its recent full year results announcement, saying it expected the acquisition of the popular mobile money service to “further accelerate our mobile money growth plans in Africa”. Vodacom group CEO Shameel Joosub confirmed the plans in an interview with ITWeb, saying Vodacom, through a joint agreement with Safaricom, has done a deal with Vodafone to “take over M-Pesa completely”. “So, Safaricom…

Read More

Africa’s mobile money platform Mpesa expands to Europe

Editor’s note: Tomorrow Transformed explores innovative approaches and opportunities available in business and society through technology. (CNN) — Snapchat may be the latest application with a new mobilepayment feature launched this week, but the idea that made Snapcash possible was spawned more than seven years ago in Africa. When M-Pesa came on the scene in 2007 — a money transfer system devised by Vodafone and Kenya-based Safaricom – it sparked a mini-revolution. With the touch of a button, relatives in Nairobi could transfer cash instantly to their remote up-country families…

Read More

African Mobile Money platform Mpesa adopted in Europe

Vodafone brings Africa’s M-Pesa mobile money to Europe * Launch targets 7 mln in Romania who mainly use cash * M-Pesa has 16.8 mln active customers in emerging markets * Mobile payments expected to grow rapidly in coming years By Kate Holton LONDON, March 31 (Reuters) – Vodafone brought the mobile money service that has revolutionised banking in Africa to Romania on Monday, offering M-Pesa text-message transactions to millions of customers in its first push into Europe. Vodafone said it had chosen Romania to target the seven million people there…

Read More