Airtel Africa partners Finablr to widen cross-border payments to 100 countries

By Omobayo Azeez

Telecoms services provider, Airtel Africa, and global payment and foreign exchange platform, Finablr, have inked a partnership agreement to leverage their strengths to facilitate inbound and outbound cross-border payments.

A statement jointly signed by the duo on Tuesday, explained that as result of the arrangement, Airtel Africa mobile money operations will be integrated with Finablr’s technology platform and global network to provide the Fintech services.

The new partnership will allow customers to leverage Finablr’s global network to send money from over 100 countries into Airtel Africa Money mobile wallets across Africa, in a convenient, secure and cost effective manner.

The statement read: “Additionally, Airtel Africa will leverage Finablr’s technology capabilities to develop and deploy digital solutions, enabling African expatriates to settle payments into Airtel Money wallets in real time through the Airtel Money mobile app and the Airtel online portal.”

The fintech partners said the services are expected to be launched market-by-market in a phased manner, with the first country to go live by year end.

They added that the launch will be supported b by a comprehensive worldwide marketing programme to introduce the new services to African communities overseas and to receivers in Africa.

According to him, “Together, building on the strength of our technology platform, we are delivering fintech at scale thereby empowering consumers and businesses across the continent.”

In his remarks, CEO of Airtel Africa, Raghunath Mandava, described the partnership as another important example of how mobile technology will play a key role in changing the way people connect with their homes in Africa.

He said the collaboration with Finablr will enable customers to make cross-border remittances, pay bills, make purchases and withdraw cash from Airtel’s outlet and agents across the continent.