MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Orange, MTN to Launch Mobile Wallet Mowali, Offering Interoperability With Other Mobile Money Services Across Africa

Two telecommunications companies, France-based Orange Group and South Africa-based MTN Group, are partnering to create Mowali, a mobile wallet allowing people to send payments to individuals and merchants across Africa. The two companies hold a total of 100 million mobile-money accounts, but Mowali also will work with other mobile-money services, connecting a total of 338 million users on the continent.

Established in 1994, MTN Group has 230 million active subscribers in Cyprus, Iran, Syria, Yemen and 20 African countries as of 2018. It reports 2017 revenue of ZAR 133 billion (USD 11 billion) and pretax profits of ZAR 9.6 billion (USD 772 million).

Orange Group serves 261 million customers in 29 countries in Africa, Europe and the Middle East. As of 2017, it reported operating cash flow of EUR 5.6 billion (USD 6.4 billion).

By Michelle Fleming, Research Associate

Sources and Additional Resources

Orange press release
https://www.orange.com/en/Press-Room/press-releases/press-releases-2018/Orange-and-MTN-launch-pan-African-mobile-money-interoperability-to-scale-up-mobile-financial-services-across-Africa

Orange homepage
https://www.orange.com/

MTN homepage
https://www.mtn.com/

MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: MTN, Airtel Launch Rwanda-to-Tanzania Mobile Remittance Service
https://www.microcapital.org/microcapital-brief-mtn-airtel-launch-rwanda-to-tanzania-mobile-remittance-service/

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