Orange, Cellulant expand mobile payments in Botswana

Orange Money in Botswana and pan-African payments company, Cellulant, have partnered to enable card-to-wallet transfers from eight banks in the southern African country.

According to a statement, the service will allow customers to transfer money online from any bank account in the country to an Orange money wallet.

However, the sender does not need to have an Orange money account – they are only required to have a registered Orange SIM card, while the recipient needs an Orange money wallet.

"The introduction of Card-To-Wallet aligns with our financial inclusion strategy that is centered around providing relevant and convenient solutions that address our customers' everyday needs, as well as addressing our priorities around placing our customers first," said Orange Money CEO, Seabelo Pilane.

Customers can also buy airtime and access other mobile network operator services using their Visa or Mastercard debit and credit cards through Tingg.

Tingg is a one-stop payments aggregator that enables merchants to receive, view and reconcile all their payments via a single platform.

"We are pleased to partner with Orange Money Botswana to power payments for their Card-to-Wallet service. This is in line with our strategy to extend our services to merchants in Botswana with a view of helping them digitize their payments." added Cellulant Botswana country manager Bathusi Beleme.

Mobile money boom

There has been a massive push in mobile money services in Africa and the partnership will continue to cement Orange's footprint in the continent. Orange operates in 18 countries in the Middle East and Africa and has over 130 million customers in the region.

Want to know more about mobile financial services in Africa? Check out our dedicated Fintech content channel here on Connecting Africa.

Neighbor South Africa's telecoms operators have started offering progressively more mobile financial services solutions to customers, including a trend of new lending products in the market.

Safaricom's M-Pesa also recently launched a Visa virtual card that allows secure cashless payments at merchant locations in over 200 countries through Visa’s global network.

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*Top image source: Image by wirestock on Freepik