Vodafone Expands Availability of M-Pesa (Aug. 26, 2013)
Aug. 26, 2013
Vodafone continues to expand availability of M-Pesa throughout India as it readies the launch of the money service in at least two other countries by the end of this year. As an expansion of its partnership with ICICI Bank, India’s largest private sector bank, M-Pesa is now available to consumers in Delhi, Mumbai and Uttar Pradesh, according to reports. Vodafone introduced M-Pesa to markets in India in late 2012, in hopes of duplicating the success the program has had in Kenya, where, since launching in 2007, it has become extremely popular, garnering approximately 17 million users in the country by the end of 2011.
Vodafone also announced plans to launch M-Pesa in Egypt and Romania in 2013, according to Indian business newspaper Business Standard. News of the U.K.-based telco’s launches in these countries follows an announcement by MasterCard Worldwide in June of its plans to roll out a mobile payment service in partnership with the National Bank of Egypt and mobile network operator Etisalat targeting millions of unbanked Egyptian consumers.
“In emerging markets, the mobile device is by far the most powerful driver of change,” Michael Joseph, director of mobile money at Vodafone, told Paybefore in an interview earlier this year. For the full interview on Vodafone’s mobile financial services strategy, see the Spring issue of Pay Magazine.
