By M&M Team
Users of mKey, the money transfer app launched by Equity Group Holdings subsidiary Finserve will be able to send money across the African continent starting next month.
You can download the app here.
According to road map announced by Finserve Managing Director, users will be able to transfer funds from their mKey digital wallets to bank accounts or mobile money accounts of their relatives, friends or business associates in a deal with online money transfer service provider WorldRemit.
Ngare says the cross border transfer service will be available to users when it is launched in November.
“This will be the first affordable cross border non bank money transfer service from Kenya,” says Ngare.
WorldRemit is a UK based online money transfer service that allows users to send funds to 145 countries across the globe.
But there is more.
mKey users in Kenya will also be able to receive money to their digital wallets from the app’s users in Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, South Sudan and Democratic Republic of Congo.
According to Ngare, the roll out of the app in other African countries will follow Equity Group’s regional footprints.
The banking has operations in Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda
“Our thinking is very simple. In the countries where the group has operations, there are also licensed Equity Bank agents. This means that mKey users in those countries have deposit points through Equity Banks agents and can therefore transfer funds to other users within their countries or across the borders,” says Ngare.
While there are apps, such as Wave Money, that allow users to send money from Western capitals to mobile money transfer accounts of recipients in Kenya, mKey will be the first app where Kenyans can transfer and receive money across the borders.
In essence, what this means is that Kenyan parents with students in various universities in Africa will now just need the app to send upkeep and school fees to their children studying in universities located anywhere on the African continent.
It also means that small businesses across the continent can easily buy from each other by making payments through mKey making the app a facilitator of intra-Africa trade.
