London and Lagos, 22 January 2020: Airtel Africa plc (“Airtel Africa” or “Group”), a leading provider of telecommunications and mobile money services, with a presence in i4 countries across Africa, has signed a strategic partnership with Western Union, a global leader in cross-border, cross-currency money movement and payments.
Through this partnership, Airtel Money customers will be able to reliably send and receive international money transfers directly from their phones, using the AirtelAfrica mobile money wallet. This paves the way for Airtel Africa to further cater to the needs of local and global community members to move money and enable international cross-border payments.
This partnership helps Airtel Africa to take an active part in the international money transfer business that happens to and from its operating countries.
Commenting on the partnership, Raghunath Mandava, CEO of AirtelAfrica, said: ‘We are very excited to partner with Western Union to enable Airtel Money customers to access a world-leading money transfer organisations. International remittances into Africa are a lifeline to some of our customers. This partnership gives our customers the convenience of directly receiving and sending remittances from their Airtel mobile money wallets. They will now be automatically credited and debited via their Airtel mobile money wallets on their phone and can immediately access the funds to pay bills or merchants and transfer funds to family and friends or convert to cash from the widespread Airtel Money agents, kiosks and branches.”
