NilePay, new mobile money platform launches in South Sudan

NilePay^[1], recently partnered with Zain South Sudan to launch NilePay Mobile Money in a move to eliminate significant barriers that have hindered consumers in the country from taking full advantage of global eCommerce.

“NilePay Mobile Service’s partnership with Zain South Sudan is part of the company’s long-term strategy to enable eCommerce and digitize financial services across the country,” said Darius Mobe, Director, NilePay Mobile Money

Most people in South Sudan’s capital have been relying on unlicensed mobile operators to transfer money through platforms created by MTN Uganda and Kenya’s M-PESA.

“We are excıted to have partnered with NilePay PLC to brıng the mobile wallet services to the South Sudan market, which makes it more convenient and secure for users to withdraw and deposit money to their accounts while participating in the digital economy.” says Eng. Magdi Taha, CEO, Zain South Sudan

2 billion people lack access to basic financial services

Worldwide, almost 700 million people have registered mobile money accounts, transacting an average of $1 billion a day. Yet another 2 billion people lack access to basic financial services, meaning they miss out on the advantages that mobile money provides.

Mobile money has enabled Africa to leapfrog to a position where it is alongside if not ahead of the developed world in terms of Fintech. South Sudan’s 8-year-old economy is ready to hop on the bandwagon as the interoperability of mobile money services movement grows.

NilePay Mobile Money, named after the famous River Nile that straddles the Republic of South Sudan intends to offer the active 2 million mobile users a versatile and secure mobile payment solution, that is easy to scale and provides a seamless customer experience.

Zain’s many mobile money partners

NilePay PLC is a South Sudanese Company headquartered in Juba, South Sudan. The firm is joining firms such as eServGlobal ^[2]which entered into a 3 year agreement with Zain Mobile to provide mobile money service to its customers.

eServGlobal and Zain were to offer a complete mobile money platform, providing services such electronic top-up, mobile wallets, mobile banking, online payments, salary disbursements, peer-to-peer money transfer, micro finance, airtime top-up, bill payment and payment at a merchant.

Zain partnered with Bank of Khartoum to launch a mobile financial service called ‘Hassa^[3]’. Hassa was an easy, instant and secure service that allows all Zain customers in the country to complete a wide range of financial transactions and operations, including money transfers and various other transactions, including paying bills and withdrawal of cash from Automated Teller Machines (ATM) without the requirement of opening a bank account.

Later there was “Bank it system”^[4] which might never have launched outside its office as its founder was Software Engineering student who might have given the idea up for job opportunities. Recently, m-GURUSH^[5] launched to be the country’s new mobile commerce platform.m-GURUSH is a JV between Sudan’s Trinity Technologies and Zain Telecom South Sudan.

“The m-GURUSH money mobile commerce platform presents a complete transformation from your first interaction with it, which is a simple, easy to use customer friendly access menu that makes it fast and convenient for customers and dealers to carry out transactions. The platform provides consumers with a robust offering of products that cuts across, Service Payments, Airtime top up and money transfer services.” said Mr. Joseph Arinaitwe, Trinity Technologies Vice President.^[6]

m-GURUSH promised to promote broad digitization of the economy giving its users a full suite of services that are relevant to their daily lives, encouraging them to keep their funds in digital form and building resilience to financial shocks.

m-GURUSH also promised to pursue partnerships with the SMEs, Government and humanitarian organizations to ensure ease of access to affordable financial services. We hope NilePay lives more than the rest to serve its clients in South Sudan.

“Connected customers present a tremendous opportunity that more than a dozen mobile money markets in the world are already seizing through interoperability. When digital finance is unencumbered, people are empowered. The move to introduce mobile money payments is part of our strategy to bring the benefits of electronic payments to the people of South Sudan,” added Asha Marie, Director, NilePay Mobile Money

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References

1. ^{^} NilePay (www.nilepay.africa)
2. ^{^} eServGlobal (techmoran.com)
3. ^{^} mobile financial service called ‘Hassa (techmoran.com)
4. ^{^} “Bank it system” (techmoran.com)
5. ^{^} m-GURUSH (mgurush.com)
6. ^{^} Mr. Joseph Arinaitwe, Trinity Technologies Vice President. (techmoran.com)