MFS Africa has partnered with Afrimoney to make its entry into Sierra Leone to enable mobile money users in the country to receive payments from abroad smoothly and affordably.

Afrimoney, is Africell’s mobile money service, will now be linked to other mobile transfer operator customers connected to the MFS Africa hub – such as MoneyGram, World Remit, and Xoom – to allow users to easily send money to mobile wallets in Sierra Leone. MFS Africa’s hub has over 320 million mobile wallets providing an array of new cross-border payment possibilities.

According to Dare Okoudjou, CEO and founder of MFS Africa: “To drive growth in Sierra Leone, bringing more people into the financial system is essential. We are excited to develop new financial pathways to the market with this partnership – Africell offers a compelling and easy way for Sierra Leonean people and businesses to access financial services easily. We’re expanding the possibilities for users by making it seamless and cost-effective to receive money across borders – whether that’s enabling a son or daughter in Freetown to send money home to his or her family or removing obstacles to entrepreneurs who want to look further afield for business.”

Remittances from abroad amount to more than half of annual household consumption in Sierra Leone and therefore play an important role in economic growth. As of 2017, less than one in five people in Sierra Leone had a bank account, and mobile money provides an alternative to conventional finance.

In April, MFS Africa announced it serves over 320 million mobile money wallets, enabling a range of banks, telcos, money transfer operators, and other financial institutions interoperability at scale in Africa through a single integration point.  The firm also partnered with Xoom to connect the diaspora in the UK, US, Canada and Europe to mobile wallets in Cameroon, Ghana, Rwanda, Uganda, Zambia, Cote d’Ivoire, Madagascar, Malawi and Mozambique and Zimbabwe via the MFS Africa Hub. This new expansion also adds Sierra Leone to the list of its reach.

“Afrimoney is driving greater financial inclusion in Sierra Leone and other African countries, said Andy Widmann, Group Director, Afrimoney. “Our partnership with MFS Africa adds to the strength of the Afrimoney platform by linking us to more international mobile transfer operators and giving these operators superior access to the growing market of Sierra Leone. Remittances are an important source of economic value for Sierra Leone, and we are pleased to be working with MFS Africa to make them easier and more affordable for customers.”

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