GloMobile Nigeria, a Nigerian telecommunications company, and TransferTo, a Singapore-based global airtime remittances company, have announced the launch of the GloMobile International Airtime Transfer service, which allows for the transfer of prepaid mobile phone airtime between any GloMobile customer in Nigeria and approximately3.6 billion customers of 230 partner mobile network operators in 80 countries.
Nigerians currently receive approximately USD 10 billion in remittances annually [1]. While GloMobile airtime cannot be converted to cash, “minutes” are sometimes used informally for bartering for other goods and services. At present, an individual wishing to send USD 200 back to Nigeria from North America would have to pay approximately USD 13 per transaction according to the Migration Policy Institute [3]. There is no immediate word on how much the service will cost.
Sources and Additional Resources:
Information submitted to MicroCapital by TransferTo
[1] World Bank, “Migration and Remittances Factbook 2011,” http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTPROSPECTS/Resources/334934-1199807…
[2] AllAfrica.com, “Globacom to Offer International Airtime Transfer Service On ‘Transferto’,”
http://allafrica.com/stories/201110170470.html
[3] Migration Policy Institute, “Remittances Profile: Nigeria,” http://www.migrationinformation.org/datahub/remittances/Nigeria.pdf
MicroCapital.org story, October 3 2011, “MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Orascom’s Mobilink Receives Approval to Offer Mobile Microfinance Banking in Pakistan,” https://www.microcapital.org/microcapital-brief-orascom%E2%80%99s-mobilin…
MicroCapital.org story, October 5 2011, “MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Bangladesh Bank Issues Guidelines on Mobile Microfinance,”https://www.microcapital.org/microcapital-brief-bangladesh-bank-issues-gu…
MicroCapital Universe Profile: TransferTo,
https://www.microcapital.org/microfinanceuniverse/tiki-index.php?page=Tra…
Browse the MicroCapital Universe and add your entry to the wiki at https://www.microcapital.org/microfinanceuniverse/
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