Orange Money, a mobile money service, announced its achievements in the last 10 years after launching the business in Cote d’Ivoire in 2008.
The mobile money service has 40 million customers and is available in 17 countries, reaching €26 billion in transactions in 2017. 13 million customers use Orange Money every month, the telecom operator said on Thursday.
Orange Money is one of Orange Group’s leading growth drivers. Orange reported revenue of 10.082 billion euros (+2 percent) in the first quarter of 2018 with an adjusted EBITDA of 2.605 billion euros (+3.8 percent). Orange’s Africa & Middle East business achieved 6.2 percent growth in revenue.
Orange Money said its sales rose 60 percent from 2016 to 2017. Orange Money is one of the Group’s top growth drivers in Africa, particularly in Cote d’Ivoire, Mali, Burkina Faso, Senegal and Cameroon. The service gives close to 50 percent of users access to banking services in areas with low levels of bank usage — in some countries.
Orange Money is now more than a cash transfer service. Orange has expanded the offer to include international transfers, bill payment, and wage payment services. The mobile operator made investment in innovation and introduced the Bank to Wallet service that enables transfers between bank accounts and Orange Money accounts.
Orange Group said it first quarter Capex was 1.533 billion euros (+3.7 percent). Capex as a percentage of revenue for telecom activities was 15.1 percent, an increase of 0.2 percentage points compared with the 1st quarter of 2017.
Electronic money, which is available to facilitate exchanges and secure transactions, is powering individuals and major companies and SMEs.
Orange has created financial establishments with Central Bank approval in seven African countries, as well as a shared supervision and compliance control structure, CECOM, based in Abidjan.
“Orange Money makes real contributions to economic and social development in Africa and is a part of our strategy as a multiservice operator and digital transformation partner in Africa and the Middle East,” Alioune Ndiaye, CEO of Orange Middle East and Africa (OMEA), said.
Orange will be expanding lending and savings services directly by mobile phone. These services, which are available through partners, are already offered to Orange customers in Mali and Madagascar since early 2018 as part of the initial launch.
GSMA says more than 250 million started to use mobile money since 2015 — bringing the total number of mobile money accounts to nearly 700 million in over 90 countries at the end of 2017.
A GSMA report said mobile money industry processed transactions worth a billion dollars a day, generating direct revenues of over $2.4 billion in 2017.
Sub-Saharan Africa was the epicentre of mobile money. Growth of the mobile money was led by regions other than Africa in 2017. South Asia achieved 47 percent growth becoming the fastest-growing region in terms of registered accounts and represents 34 percent of accounts globally.
GSMA said nearly 25 percent of incoming funds were digital in 2017 against nearly 12 percent in 2012.
Baburajan K
