Obopay has teamed with Warid Telecom to launch a mobile banking and payment service in Uganda. It will be called Warid Pesa.
There is growing demand for mobile payments in Uganda, where Warid Pesa provides a prepaid account that enables customers to perform e-money transactions, pay for goods and services as well as settle accounts.
Warid Pesa is based on Obopay's open and interoperable mobile-money solutions, which now support millions of customers globally for some of the world’s largest brands. Obopay says its platform enables a comprehensive range of use-cases that drive incremental transactions and revenue, providing a bridge between new and existing payment technologies. The service enables new channels of distribution for offering financial services that are useful in areas with income disparity. It can be used on any device – even on inexpensive pre-paid mobile phones – and the graphic interface has been given a simple design so that anyone can access it easily, the company said.
Warid Telecom customers can perform the following mobile-money functions: person-to-person mobile money transfer; person-to-merchant mobile money transfer; send money to anyone; request money; obtain a mini statement of the account; balance inquiry; change PIN; and top-up prepaid cell phones for yourself or another person.
“We understand that financial inclusion is the most important aspect in alleviating poverty in Uganda," said Shailenrda Naidu, chief commercial officer, Warid Telecom, Uganda. “Warid Pesa is an attempt to establish innovative and convenient mobile money transfer and payments for those who don’t have access to banking service."
The government of Uganda recognizes that mobile banking and payments are major catalysts in the drive toward financial inclusion in the African nation. Through Warid Pesa, people of Uganda can avail themselves benefits of financial services that were until now inaccessible to a majority of the population.
