Kenyan mobile network Safaricom and Vodacom, the South African division of Vodafone, have acquired phone-based money transfer service M-PESA.
The acquisition, which includes the M-PESA brand, product development and support services, sees the companies take ownership away from Vodafone and into a newly-created joint venture.
The deal aims to increase the growth of M-PESA in Africa and will enable expansion across the continent.
Vodacom Group CEO Shameel Joosub said, “This is a significant milestone for Vodacom as it will accelerate our financial services aspirations in Africa. Our joint venture will allow Vodacom and Safaricom to drive the next generation of the M-PESA platform – an intelligent, cloud-based platform for the smartphone age. It will also help us to promote greater financial inclusion and help bridge the digital divide within the communities in which we operate.”
In line with the deal, M-PESA has been relocated to Kenya. Working together, Safaricom hopes to consolidate its platform development, synchronise product roadmaps and improve operational capabilities.
M-PESA is a digital payments platform which supports over 40 million users and processes more than a billion transactions each month, it claims. The platform is currently in operation in Kenya, Tanzania, Lesotho, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana, Mozambique and Egypt.
Vodafone Group CEO Nick Read said, “M-PESA is hugely successful and enables millions of unbanked people in Africa to transfer money, pay bills and trade. It benefits communities and helps create a multitude of small and micro-business ventures. However, with the rapid increase in smartphone penetration, the evolution into financial services and the potential for geographical expansion, we believe the next step in M-PESA’s African growth will be more effectively overseen by Vodacom and Safaricom.”
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