MoneyGram and Safaricom’s M-Pesa will next month officially launch international money transfer services between MoneyGram and M-Pesa to allow users in the diaspora to send money direct to the mobile wallets of Kenyans back at home.
According to a MoneyGram spokesperson who spoke to TechMoran, the deal was signed in February with Vodafone legally but the services were supposed to launch in the second quarter of this year. Now set to launch in a months time, MoneyGram and M-Pesa consumers can conduct person-to-person money transfers to and from other countries. The money can be collected at any country where MoneyGram is available without the need of a banking account.
CEO Pamela Patsley who is set to travel to Kenya early next month from the company’s headquarters in Dallas, Texas will officially launch the transfers with M-Pesa. Patsley who was honouring an invite extended to her by the President during his visit to the United States of America, said, “I am very excited to be going to Kenya. It is very important to us and this agreement is a key milestone in the growth of MoneyGram in the country and the continent at large”
With a global network of 327 000 agent locations – including retailers, international post offices and financial institutions – in nearly 200 countries and territories, MoneyGram enables consumers to transfer money globally even to places not served by banks.
The MoneyGram Vodafone M-Pesa deal will go live in the DRC, Egypt, Fiji, India, Kenya, Lesotho, Mozambique, South Africa and Tanzania and more other countries. Western Union launched similar services earlier with M-Pesa in Kenya and Tanzania and with MTN Mobile Money in Uganda.