By Sharon Tibenda

12^th Dec 2011: The world’s biggest payments network Visa has joined Africa’s fast growing Mobile Money transfer business with a ground breaking announcement that it will be working with MTN to create prepaid accounts linked to mobile phones across Africa and the Middle East.

The new product will be available through the MTN Group’s cellular network of approximately 5.7 million customers in 12 countries including Nigeria and Uganda.  It will be Visa’s first offering in Africa since it took over Cape Town-based mobile commerce company Fundamo in June this year.

Fundamo provided the technology for the product, and the new card will be available to Nigerian and Ugandan customers first.  MTN Mobile Money is already available in 11 countries and will soon be rolled out to 2 more.  MTN said they have 6 million active subscribers on their deployment, adding that Mobile Money is very popular in some countries.

Visa Executives explained that the new product is predominantly designed for what they called “un-banked consumers”, meaning those without conventional bank accounts.  While the product is mainly aimed at previously un-banked users, it will also allow users to load money directly from a bank account, just like their customers in Ghana are already doing.

Financial services analysts are optimistic that Visa’s time tasted experiences in the electronic payments business will revolutionise the often sluggish way in which MTN-Uganda has been operating its Mobile Money system.  END.  Please login to www.ugandacorrespondent.com every Monday to read our top stories and anytime mid-week for our news updates.