Kenya’s Safaricom is expanding its mobile money transfer service M-Pesa to West Africa.
When the service was launched in Kenya in 2007 it revolutionised banking and money services in the country.
But it is entering a much more crowded market in West Africa.
There are more new mobile money customers in the region than anywhere else in the world, a recent report found.
In Nigeria, for example, less than half of all adults are said to have a bank account, meaning many rely on mobile money services such as Palmpay and Opay.
The M-Pesa plans were announced on Monday.
It’s part of a deal with Access Holdings – the parent company of Africa’s largest bank – and a Nigerian wealth management group called Coronation Group.
