South Africa\u2019s second largest mobile network by subscribers, MTN SA, has stopped signing up new mobile money customers as it studies the feasibility of the product.<\/p>\n
In 2012, MTN partnered with the South African Bank of Athens, Pick n Pay and Boxer stores to launch a mobile money solution enabling the opening of simple bank accounts via phones.<\/p>\n
Digital banking company TYME \u2013 which has since been acquired by the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) \u2013 helped install MTN\u2019s mobile money solution.<\/p>\n
In 2014, MTN SA further launched a \u2018Mobile Money Visa\u2019 card and a Pick n Pay branded SIM card.<\/p>\n
But MTN is now reviewing its mobile money service.<\/p>\n
\u201cMTN is currently in discussion with all relevant stakeholders to explore the feasibility of continuing with this service,\u201d chief consumer officer at MTN SA Larry Annetts said in a statement emailed to Fin24.<\/p>\n
\u201cFurthermore, MTN can confirm that the platform is not available for new customers\u201d said Annetts.<\/p>\n
But MTN\u2019s Mobile Money platform has not been shut down, Annetts said on Friday.<\/p>\n
Annetts further said \u201cthere are approximately 140 000 customers that are currently on board\u201d.<\/p>\n
However, this figure indicates a fall in users of the service as MTN and Pick n Pay said in a statement in 2014 that 2 million customers were previously using the mobile money product.<\/p>\n
MTN\u2019s feasibility review of its mobile money service comes after Vodacom shut down its M-Pesa service earlier this year.<\/p>\n
In March, Fin24 exclusively reported that Vodacom was reviewing its M-Pesa product. Vodacom then moved to shut down M-Pesa in May after the service only managed to notch up 76 000 users.<\/p>\n
When Vodacom launched M-Pesa in South Africa in 2010, it had a lofty target of reaching 10 million customers.<\/p>\n
Mobile money, though, has thrived in relatively unbanked African markets such as Kenya, where network Safaricom has over 11 million users.<\/p>\n
And while Vodacom shut down M-Pesa in South Africa, the company is still operating the product in African markets such as Tanzania, Lesotho and Mozambique.<\/p>\n
For MTN, mobile money has also been performing outside of South Africa as the company reported in its recent interim results that customers increased 5% to 36.5 million across 15 countries.<\/p>\n
Revenue from mobile money services for the MTN Group across Africa also increased 40.8% to R1.29bn when compared to June 2015, according to the company\u2019s latest interim results.<\/p>\n
MTN is South Africa\u2019s second biggest mobile network with around 28 million subscribers.<\/p>\n
Fin24<\/a><\/p>\n MTN South Africa struggles to keep its subscribers<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n This is why MTN is making a loss in the first half of 2016<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\nMore on MTN<\/h3>\n