Orange Money reaches 300,000 customers
Staff Writer | Wednesday August 26, 2015 18:00
In a statemenet relased this week, the company said by the end of July, there were 294 124 customers on Orange Money, constituting 64% of the market share.
The Orange Money facility allows customers to deposit and withdraw money from an Orange Money account, transfer money from person to person (both Orange and non-Orange customers) within Botswana, to top up airtime on one’s mobile account, pay for goods and services such as Dstv, buying of prepaid electricity, payment of postpaid bills and insurance premiums, as well as payment of salaries and allowances.
Orange Public Relations and Foundation Manager, Boga Chilinde-Masebu said when they launched the Orange Money service four years ago, their primary objective was to offer convenience and banking services to the large base of Batswana, who are unable to access financial services.
“This service has proven to be an effective financial inclusion tool. We can now see a significant number of people without bank accounts being able to save money, send and receive money and perform financial transactions through their mobile phones,” she said.
Following the success of the service, in 2013 Orange partnered with Visa Incorporation to launch the Orange Money Visa Card, which took the mobile banking platform to a whole new level, thus taking a step further towards improving access to financial services.
“To date, we are the only telecommunications company that has the Visa card as a part of their mobile banking offering,” she said.
The Orange Money Visa card operates like a bank card, customers can withdraw money from any Visa ATM and swipe for goods and services at any point of service (POS) in stores. In addition, one can request for a virtual card, which will allow them to shop online.
“We would like to bring more partners on board with Orange Money, increasing the functionality of Orange Money. There is definitely more to come from our Orange Money platform,” she said.
Orange Money and other mobile money services such as Mascom MyZaka and the commercial banks’ platforms like FNBB’s E-wallet and Barclays’ Cashsend have boosted financial inclusion in the country.
Due to commercial banks’s reluctance to set up branch in economically unviable-remote areas, mobile money platforms have helped reduce the percentage of the financially excluded to 24 percent from 31 percent in 2009, the latest Finscope study shows.
According to figures contained in the Bank of Botswana (BoB) 2014 annual report, the number of mobile money transactions at the end of 2013, stood at 3 195 959 amounting to P917 million. This was a significant jump from 4,915 transactions recorded in 2010, which were valued at P1.6 million.