Local teleco, Orange Botswana through its mobile money services, “Orange Money” has announced a partnership with Ecocash, paving way for a digital money transfer between Botswana and Zimbabwe.
The new service is expected to deepen financial inclusion of nationals of the two neighboring countries.
The company states that this launch marks the first ever hub-enabled cross-operator service for Orange Money in Africa.
The service allows Zimbabweans living in Botswana, to use their Orange Money digital wallet to send money back home in real-time, directly into an EcoCash mobile wallet, which is powered by TransferTo’s global mobile payments network.
“As part of our broader financial inclusion and diversification strategy, Orange Money seeks to expand its services to offer a cheaper, secure and more convenient International Money Transfer payment infrastructure from Botswana to the whole Southern Africa region and beyond,” Orange Botswana Chief Executive Officer Patrick Benon said.
Benon added that the partnership is aligned to their innovation efforts aimed at offering their customers more cost-effective solutions to facilitate both cross-border and domestic money transfers.
He further emphasized that this new partnership represents convenience at its best and since the introduction of the service the company has realised a steady growth in the number of Orange Money subscribers who are of Zimbabwean origin.
Orange Botswana also state that this is a win situation to source income for Zimbabwe, powering significant social and economic developments across the country. It add that for over 600,000 Orange Money subscribers, this convenient new service offers a unique payments experience enabling between digital wallets, providing an alternative option to traditional means of sending money across borders.
And by advocating the use of mobile money, this partnership is ultimately helping to alleviate poverty through better financial management and as well, powering economic growth for communities.
Still Peter De Caluwe, CEO of TransferTo, noted that, “We continue to expand and accelerate our efforts to create innovations that allow direct transfers between digital wallets, and so taking cross-border transfers to a whole new level. Our goal is to provide our customers with simple but effective solutions which give them the convenience they need, as well as being a conduit for economic development wherever we operate.”
He said with this partnership, they have an amazing opportunity to help meet the growing demand for alternative digital financial solutions in Africa and offer a secure and more convenient payment infrastructure through which digital transfers are performed.
