MTN will launch a new mobile money service before the end of the quarter says MTN South Africa CEO Godfrey Motsa.<\/p>\n
Speaking at the 2019 MyBroadBand Conference at Midrand in Johannesburg, Motsa said that there are 17 million people who are unbanked or underbanked in the country – meaning the time was right to re-enter the market.<\/p>\n
While he noted that similar mobile money services had failed twice previously, Motsa said that its current offering has remained incredibly popular in the rest of Africa.<\/p>\n
“We have over 30 million customers on mobile money already and made around R8 billion last year,” he said.<\/p>\n
“While I often hear people say that ‘South Africa is not Africa’, there are still 17 million people that are unbanked and need to be serviced,” he said.<\/p>\n
‘Relaunch’<\/strong><\/p>\n MTN launched a mobile money platform in 2012 \u2013 attracting over 2 million customers.<\/p>\n However, the company shut the service down in 2016 citing \u2018commercial viability\u2019.<\/p>\n \u201cThe operating costs of providing a mobile money platform have become prohibitive. The decision by MTN SA to shelve its mobile money service does not signify an exit from financial services,\u201d said MTN at the time.<\/p>\n Despite shutting down its mobile money service, MTN said it was still committed to being a relevant player in the financial services space.<\/p>\n
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