MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Orange, NSIA Establish Orange Bank Africa in Côte d’Ivoire, Offering Mobile Banking Services, Eyeing Expansion in West Africa

France-based telecommunications company Orange recently partnered with NSIA Group, a firm in Côte d’Ivoire that specializes in bancassurance, to establish Orange Bank Africa in the city of Abidjan. Orange Bank Africa offers both microcredit and savings services through mobile phones via the Orange Money service. The minimum loan size is XOF 5,000 (USD 9), and the minimum deposit transaction is XOF 1,000 (USD 2). Savings balances up to XOF 10 million (USD 18,000) earn an annualized interest of 3.5 percent. In the future, Orange Bank Africa plans to extend its operations to Burkina Faso, Mali and Senegal.

Orange CEO Stephane Richard maintains, “New technology is needed to strengthen financial inclusion and support economic development, as proven by mobile money over the past few years. Banking is a new area of business for Orange in Africa. It falls squarely in line with our strategy as a multi-service operator and our desire to drive the digital transformation forward in Africa.”

Founded in 2015, NSIA Group is active in insurance, banking, finance, technology and real estate. Its goal is to “become the leader in bancassurance in the CIMA [Conférence Interafricaine des Marchés d’Assurances] zone by developing retail banking and by setting up monitoring of the environmental and social impact of projects financed and / or insured.” In addition to France, NSIA Group operates in 12 countries in West and Central Africa. As of 2017, the group reported a cumulative turnover of XOF 209 billion (USD 374 million). More recent financial data on the firm are not available.

Orange is a telecommunications company founded in France in 1988. The firm had 2019 operating cash flow of EUR 5.57 billion (USD 6.53 billion). As of the same year, the company had 147,000 employees serving 266 million customers in 26 countries in Africa, Europe and the Middle East.

By Jessica McLeod, Research Associate

Sources and Additional Resources

Orange press release
https://www.orange.com/en/Press-Room/press-releases/press-releases-2020/Orange-and-NSIA-launch-Orange-Bank-Africa-to-provide-greater-access-to-financial-services-and-improve-the-financial-inclusion-of-people-living-in-West-Africa

Orange Bank Africa in Côte d’Ivoire
https://orangebank.ci/

NSIA Group homepage
https://www.groupensia.com/

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

Orange integrated 2019 annual report
https://rai2019.orange.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/38/2020/06/orange_rapportannuelintegre_2019_accessible_en.pdf

Previous MicroCapital article on Orange
https://www.microcapital.org/microcapital-brief-orange-mtn-to-launch-mobile-wallet-mowali-offering-interoperability-with-other-mobile-money-services-across-africa/

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