Tandaabiashara

Local industry players are looking to other models for mobile money transfer solutions, amid the failure of these to take off in SA – in stark contrast to other African countries where the same services have thrived.

Most notably, M-Pesa – launched as a partnership between SA’s first mobile operator Vodacom and then big four bank Nedbank, in August 2010, has struggled to gain traction and currently has only a few hundred-thousand users in SA. The service has been held back by legislation and the integration needed to move money from a bank account to an electronic wallet.

On the contrary, Tanzania and Kenya – as well as the Middle East’s Afghanistan – have seen massive uptake of the same service, gaining more than 10 million customers, while SA is still sitting on a few hundred-thousand, three years down the line. more