The National Telecommunications Office (ONATEL-SA), a subsidiary of the Maroc Telecom group, and United Bank for Africa (UBA) have just signed an agreement to promote their mobile banking activities.
Since June 2016, UBA-Burkina has been ONATEL-SA’s partner bank for the issuance of electronic money in order to offer mobile payment services to Burkina Faso to improve financial inclusion.
Through this partnership, UBA will issue e-money and ONATEL will provide technical processing and distribution via its Mobicash platform.
Mobicash, the electronic wallet of ONATEL, offers various services, including the deposit of money, the withdrawal, the transfer nationally to any mobile number in Burkina and internationally as Benin, Cote d ‘Ivoire and Niger, in addition to the payment of goods, services, ONATEL invoices, ONATEL recharges and subscription to TV channels.
In order to make these services more efficient and more competitive, ONATEL proceeded, last March, to the installation of a new and more advanced platform, with functionalities that meet the expectations of the customers, report the local media, specifying that this new technology has made it possible to transfer money to all mobiles in Burkina Faso and simplify the mode of operation.
ONATEL’s Chairman of the Board, Marie Claire Kadeoua Taminy, said that in the first quarter of 2018, Mobicash achieved the same volumes of operations as during the whole of 2017.
She pointed out that in terms of innovation in the near future, the customer will be able to make payments for water and electricity charges, transfer services from Mobicash account to UBA account and vice versa, with possibility of having a mini-bank statement.
On the partnership, Claire Kadeoua explains that it intervenes in the context of the fight against financial exclusion and in order to “allow those who do not have a bank account to be able to benefit from financial services to the public. ‘mobile phone help’.
For his part, the chairman of the Board of Directors of UBA-Burkina, Damo Justin Barro, said that this partnership was of enormous interest, because it promotes the banking, among others.
Last April, Maroc-Télécom finalized the acquisition of 10% of the capital of ONATEL-SA on the Abidjan Regional Stock Exchange for 41 million euros, bringing its stake in capital of its Burkinabe subsidiary.
Maroc Telecom had forged a strategic partnership with the Burkinabé State in favor of the privatization of the operator in 2006.
As a reminder, ONATEL-SA is certified ISO 9001 version 2015, listed on the stock exchange and provides telephone network coverage of 93% of the population, with more than 8 million subscribers.
