Africell Angola launches mobile money
April 24th 2023
Africell has launched its ‘Afrimoney’ mobile money service in Angola in collaboration with the National Bank of Angola (BNA) following a pilot phase, declaring that the new platform will boost the country’s economy by digitising its informal economy and ‘unlocking’ the unbanked population. Initial services launched include mobile recharge, deposits, person-to-person transfers, bill payments, and merchant payments. As a ‘welcome’ promotion, Africell – which launched its Angolan mobile network just over a year ago – is offering new Afrimoney customers free person-to-person transactions and 100% bonuses on all mobile recharges paid for via mobile money, while it plans to eventually incorporate ‘financial services including credit, saving and insurance’ into the platform. Afrimoney already operates in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Gambia and Sierra Leone.
Africell Group’s press release adds that Afrimoney will provide ‘essential financial tools to many of the approximately 50% of Angolans who don’t have bank accounts’, enabling people to ‘transact digitally with other individuals and organisations on the network, gaining the ability to transfer, spend and earn instantly’ via their mobile phones. Group CEO Ziad Dalloul commented: ‘Africell came to Angola with a mandate to change its telecoms sector. Launching Afrimoney is a critical step in this strategy. Our network is designed to help customers be better connected, live more efficiently, and access a wide range of digital services. Mobile money has the potential to link everything together, and we expect it to have a huge impact on our business and Angola’s economy.’
Larger Angolan cellular rival Unitel launched its ‘Unitel Money’ service in August 2021, which has reportedly registered around 1.5 million users so far. TeleGeography’s GlobalComms Database notes that Unitel is aiming for five million mobile money users within four years.
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