Orange Money celebrates a decade of financial innovation in Africa and confirms its position as a major player in mobile money
Orange Money, Orange’s mobile money solution, is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year. Launched in 2008, the service, which today has 40 million customers, is present in 17 countries and has reached 26 billion euros in transactions in 2017. Orange Money is today one of the main growth drivers of Group, and the service continues to evolve for the benefit of people, businesses, institutions and governments.
A success built on the accessibility and universality of the service
Orange Money was launched for the first time in Côte d’Ivoire in 2008. This solution for money transfer and mobile payment for populations with little or no banking has built its success on accessibility and universality of service, enabling millions of people to make financial transactions instantly, securely and reliably via their mobile phone.
Today, the service is offered in 17 African countries and has 40 million customers, 13 million of whom use the service each month. With growth momentum accelerating and sales up 60% from 2016 to 2017, Orange Money has become one of the Group’s main growth drivers on the continent, particularly in Côte d’Ivoire, Mali , Burkina Faso, Senegal and Cameroon. In some countries, the service allows nearly 50% of users to access banking services in an environment characterized by low banking.
Orange Money, a strong impact on people’s lives and on savings
Orange Money is now much more than a transfer solution. In 10 years, the number of Orange Money services has quadrupled, allowing the financial inclusion of the populations and participating in the economic development of the countries.
Indeed, the offer has expanded considerably with international transfer, payment of bills, payment of wages. A major innovation, the “Bank to Wallet” service launched in 2015 goes further by enabling transfers between bank accounts and Orange Money accounts.
The dematerialization of the currency has also made it possible to streamline exchanges, secure transactions and represents today a considerable asset for large companies, for SMEs as for individuals.
Evolution of governance for greater efficiency
In order to meet the compliance requirements that govern the activity of mobile money, Orange has created financial institutions with Central Bank approval in 7 African countries as well as a mutual supervision and compliance control structure, CECOM, based in Abidjan. These structures guarantee operations and interact directly with the authorities, thus simplifying the marketing of new services.
The ambition is to make Orange Money accessible to as many people as possible, in strict compliance with the regulations of the central banks of the countries and currency areas in which Orange operates.
For Alioune Ndiaye, Managing Director of Orange Middle East and Africa (OMEA): “Orange Money is a real contributor to economic and societal development in Africa and is part of our strategy of multiservice operator, partner of digital transformation in Africa and Middle East “. He continues: “The success of Orange Money is above all a collective success, and I would like to thank all the teams who work every day for this success, which today represents a significant part of the OMEA turnover” .
According to Paul de Leusse, Deputy General Manager, in charge of Mobile Financial Services of the Orange Group “Orange Money has built its success around its usefulness, its ease of use and its perfect interweaving with Orange’s services. In this respect, Orange Money represents what Orange’s mobile financial services will be tomorrow in all of our countries, especially in Europe. ”
The prospects of Orange Money
After the transfer and payment services, Orange goes further with credit and savings instantly accessible from a mobile phone. These services are offered with local partners as a first step to Orange customers in Mali and Madagascar since the beginning of 2018.
The international transfer, also a strong axis of the development of Orange Money, aims to facilitate the link between people established outside their country of origin and their relatives.
Finally, with the widespread use of smartphones and the rapid development of uses, Orange Money’s services are evolving with the development of an application that will facilitate both interactions and transactions.
To find out more: Orange Money Press Kit
About Orange
Orange is one of the world’s leading telecommunications operators with sales of 41 billion euros in 2017 and 149,000 employees as of June 30, 2018, including 91,000 in France. The Group served 260 million customers worldwide as at June 30, 2018, including 199 million mobile customers and 20 million fixed broadband customers. The Group is present in 28 countries. Orange is also one of the world leaders in telecommunications services to multinational companies under the Orange Business Services brand. In March 2015, the Group presented its new strategic plan
“Essentials2020” which puts the experience of its customers at the heart of its strategy, so that they can fully benefit from the digital world and the power of its very high speed networks.
Orange is listed on Euronext Paris (symbol ORA) and on the New York Stock Exchange (symbol ORAN).
