Bharti Airtel Wins Kalahari Awards At 4th Mobile Money Expo 2014

By Uche Peter

Lagos, Nigeria; 13th February, 2014: In recognition of its contributions and commitment to mobile financial services across 15 countries in Africa, Bharti Airtel has been awarded the prestigious Kalahari Award 2014 as a player in the mobile money sector with the fastest growth and expansion in Africa.

The group won the award on the account of the innovative Airtel Money, a mobile money platform that has proved instrumental to the success of Government's cashless economy.

In the same vein, Bharti Airtel's Director and Africa Head, Airtel Money, Chidi Okpala was honoured as the MobileMoney Kalahari "Personality of the Year" at the 4th MobileMoney Expo held yesterday in Lagos.

Receiving the Kalahari Awards on behalf of Airtel Money, Mr. Okpala expressed appreciation to organisers of the event saying, “the awards testify to the impact and contributions of Airtel Money to the mobile financial sector in Africa.”

He said, “Airtel Money is humbled by this awards which show the output, hard work and heavy lifting by Airtel Money in just 30 months. As an organisation, we remains humble for this feat and are aware of the responsibility it further imposes on us and we are challenged to do more for our teeming customers across the African market. Speaking further, he stated that, “It is in line with the vision of Bharti Airtel to be the leader in mobile financial services by 2015. We assure our customers that Airtel Money remains committed and will do more in terms of financial inclusion.” He also expressed appreciation for being honoured with the MobileMoney Kalahari "Personality of the Year."

Earlier in his presentation at the Expo, the Bharti Airtel Director who was one of the speakers at the occasion highlighted the significant contributions of Airtel Money to the mobile financial sector in Africa, saying it generates a daily average of 1M transactions valued at $25M from an active base of 5Million customers.

He had noted that the Airtel Mobile Money platform assists governments, businesses, institutions, embassies and schools across the African continent.

He said, “Leveraging a network of about 140,000 active agent locations, Airtel is currently creating entire cashless payments ecosystems, leading the charge for massive scale financial inclusion and reducing financial transaction costs across Africa.”

He also harped on a recent World Bank report which indicates that millions of people have mobile phones but do not have mobile money services, this he said, creates the opportunity for Airtel Money to penetrate into the mobile money sector.

He said, “Airtel is renowned for revolutionizing the mobile money landscape in Africa with the ground-breaking Airtel Money. It is also on record that Airtel is the fourth largest telecoms company in the world with over 287 million customers with operations in 20 countries.

Generating a daily average of 1M transactions valued at $25M from an active base of 5Million customers, the Airtel mobile money platform currently operates in 15 African countries and renders significant services to governments and the armed forces. These include processing salaries for governments, workers and members of the armed forces thereby eliminating problem of ghost workers.

The Bharti Airtel Director also noted that the platform offers convenience to the people, hinting that it will be launched in Seychelles next month.

He described the service is an innovation which enables customers to turn their phones into electronic wallets. “Activating the Airtel Money service allows millions of customers to transfer money to their loved ones across different countries in Africa, to purchase goods in partner shops and to pay their bills.

“Airtel Money is available to all Airtel customers. It is a safe and secure service that is password-protected through state-of-the-art security systems. Customers do not require a bank account to enjoy the benefits of the Airtel Money service,” Okpala said.

The 4th MobileMoney Expo was a 2-day event attracted organisations, telecommunications solutions companies and mobile financial organisations across Africa and the world. It commenced from Wednesday 12th to Thursday 13th of February, 2014 and featured panel discussions, presentations and awards ceremony.