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JOHANNESBURG, Dec 18 (Reuters) - MTN's MTNJ.J mobile money
service will go live in January in South Africa, allowing
customers to send, receive, save money and pay for goods using
their mobile phones, the mobile operator said on Wednesday.
Last year group Chief Executive Officer Rob Shuter told a
telecoms conference in Cape Town that the company would relaunch
mobile money services in South Africa, three years after canning
the service. Shuter, who has experience in banking, is in the middle of a
strategic revamp of Africa's biggest telecoms group to hunt for
returns in everything from financial services, music and video
games.
"The introduction of this mobile money service is a pivotal
step in MTN's strategy and represents MTN's participation in the
next phase of increasing convergence we are seeing between
financial services and mobile technology," MTN South Africa CEO
Godfrey Motsa said in a statement.
The service, called MoMo, will run on the Ericsson Converged
Wallet. During the initial phase it will be available to MTN
customers and offer basic services such as sending money to any
mobile phone number in the country, buying prepaid services like
electricity and paying for purchases at selected till points,
the firm said.
MTN will kick off the service in a country where about 11
million South Africans remain unbanked, while 50% of the adult
population remains thinly served, according to MTN South Africa
Chief Officer of Mobile Financial Services, Felix Kamenga.
"MoMo aims to bridge this gap with this innovative mobile
money offering, providing a payments solution that encourages
financial inclusion," he added.
The announcement comes months after a subsidiary of MTN
Nigeria MTNN.LG was granted a "full super agent" licence by
the Central Bank of Nigeria that would allow it to provide
financial services.