The popular mobile money platform M-Pesa, of the United Kingdom based Vodafone, has been acquired by Kenya's leading telecom firm Safaricom and South Africa's Vodacom, the two companies said in a statement on Monday.
"The transaction... will accelerate M-Pesa's growth in Africa by giving both Vodacom and Safaricom full control of the M-Pesa brand, product development and support services as well as the opportunity to expand M-Pesa into new African markets," the companies said in the joint statement.
The total worth of the deal was not disclosed by either of the companies. The announcement of the deal was first announced by the companies in 2019 and was completed through a newly created joint venture. According to comments made by Safaricom's then chief executive Bob Collymore last year, the total value of the deal could be as much as about $13 million.
M-Pesa was first launched by Vodafone Kenya more than a decade ago and has become a very important mode of financial transactions in the country as it evolved from a basic mobile money transfer application in into a completely self reliant financial service platform. The service currently not only allows for transfer of money but also offers loans and savings in partnership with local banks as well as offering merchant payment services.
The expansion of the serviced has now made it the largest payments platform in Africa. According to Safaricom and Vodacom's joint statement, M-Pesa currently has more than 40 million users across the continent and processes more than a billion transactions every month.
The service has now extended well beyond Kenya and it currently offers it services in countries such as Tanzania, Lesotho, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana, Mozambique and Egypt.
"This is a significant milestone for Vodacom as it will accelerate our financial services aspirations in Africa," said Shameel Joosub, Vodacom Group CEO. "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," he added.
(Source:www.cna.com)
"The transaction... will accelerate M-Pesa's growth in Africa by giving both Vodacom and Safaricom full control of the M-Pesa brand, product development and support services as well as the opportunity to expand M-Pesa into new African markets," the companies said in the joint statement.
The total worth of the deal was not disclosed by either of the companies. The announcement of the deal was first announced by the companies in 2019 and was completed through a newly created joint venture. According to comments made by Safaricom's then chief executive Bob Collymore last year, the total value of the deal could be as much as about $13 million.
M-Pesa was first launched by Vodafone Kenya more than a decade ago and has become a very important mode of financial transactions in the country as it evolved from a basic mobile money transfer application in into a completely self reliant financial service platform. The service currently not only allows for transfer of money but also offers loans and savings in partnership with local banks as well as offering merchant payment services.
The expansion of the serviced has now made it the largest payments platform in Africa. According to Safaricom and Vodacom's joint statement, M-Pesa currently has more than 40 million users across the continent and processes more than a billion transactions every month.
The service has now extended well beyond Kenya and it currently offers it services in countries such as Tanzania, Lesotho, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana, Mozambique and Egypt.
"This is a significant milestone for Vodacom as it will accelerate our financial services aspirations in Africa," said Shameel Joosub, Vodacom Group CEO. "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," he added.
(Source:www.cna.com)
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