Orange and pan-African banking group Ecobank have rolled out a service that will enable Orange Money subscribers who also have bank accounts with Ecobank to transfer money between their respective accounts.
The service has already been launched in Mali and will be rolled out in several other African countries during the first half of 2015, including Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea Conakry, Niger, Senegal and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
In a joint statement, the groups said the partnership aims to facilitate money transfers for both Ecobank and Orange customers by offering them the possibility of topping up their Orange Money e-wallet from their bank account, and vice versa. Customers can use their mobile phones to securely transfer money at any time without the need to go to a distribution point or to have phy sical cash.
The two companies launched the service following the signature of a memorandum of understanding. The partnership comes as part of a joint strategy to enhance mobile financial services and to increase access to banking services across Africa.
“This partnership between Orange and Ecobank will further enrich customer experience. By facilitating exchanges between Ecobank and Orange Money accounts, our customers will be able to conduct financial transactions quickly and in complete security, bringing them the best of both worlds. We want to offer this service wherever it makes sense,” said Laurent Paillassot, deputy CEO of Orange in charge of customer experience and mobile banking.
Orange noted that less than 24% of the population in sub-Saharan Africa have a bank account, while over 60% have a mobile phone. It added that Orange Money has more than 12 million customers and exchanged €4.5 billion in 13 countries in 2014.
The announcement came as a Bloomberg report suggested that Orange is exploring further acquisitions in Africa, and has looked at assets owned by Bharti Airtel and Millicom. Orange said it was unable to comment on the report.
