MTN

MTN takes on Vodacom for title of Africa’s biggest digital Bank

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MTN Group Ltd. is seeking to challenge rival Vodacom Group Ltd.as Africa’s biggest digital bank by tripling its customer numbers within three years.

Already the continent’s biggest mobile-phone company by subscribers, Johannesburg-based MTN is adding about 500,000 active banking customers a month, Chief Executive Officer Rob Shuter, 50, said on Wednesday.About 20 million people use MTN’s mobile banking now, he said in an interview at Bloomberg’s office in the South African city.

MTN, Vodacom and other competitors are using more affordable and faster internet to offer banking to people in countries where traditional financial services are scarce.Mobile-money accounts allow users to deposit and withdraw funds via their phones and pay for everything from groceries to haircuts.

“We really are at that early adoption stage of mobile internet” in Africa, said Shuter, who joined MTN from Vodacom parent Vodafone Group Plc in March. In many of these markets there isn’t sufficient fixed line internet that would be needed for mobile banking or even other banking options, he said.

Vodacom owns about 35 percent of Nairobi-based Safaricom Ltd., whose fast-growing M-Pesa banking service has made it Kenya’s biggest company. Together they have about 32 million banking customers in Africa. Chief Executive Officer Shameel Joosub said last week that Vodacom was the “biggest bank in Africa,” having moved about $100 billion through M-Pesa in the last year.

Orange SA and Bharti Airtel Ltd. also provide the service on the continent.

Bloomberg