Ecobank Transnational Incorporated ("Ecobank"), the leading pan-African banking group, and Bharti Airtel ("Airtel"), a leading global telecommunications company, have signed a Memorandum of Understanding ("MOU") to promote mobile banking services across Africa.
Under the terms of the MOU, Ecobank and Airtel plan to explore the development of innovative mobile financial services focused both on serving the unbanked and under-banked and contributing to the economic development of the 14 African countries in which they jointly operate. This landmark MOU combines the distribution capabilities of Africa's largest indigenous banking group, present in 32 countries across the Continent and a world class telecoms operator committed to offering pioneering mobile services in Africa.
Both entities have agreed to launch a wide range of mobile financial services offerings, including Person to Person (P2P), Business to Business (B2B) and mobile savings products under the brand names of "Ecobank Mobile" and "Airtel Money", subject to legal and regulatory requirements.
Commenting on this significant development, Ecobank's Group Chief Executive officer, Arnold Ekpe said: "This MOU reaffirms Ecobank's commitment to providing banking and financial services to the unbanked and under-banked in Africa. And given that Ecobank and Airtel have already collaborated in some countries to successfully implement mobile financial services, it is logical that we extended this collaboration with Airtel to all the markets of our mutual presence in Africa."
Manoj Kohli Bharti Airtel's CEO ( International) and Joint Managing Director said: "Partnering with Ecobank to bring mobile financial services to all corners of Africa further demonstrates Airtel's commitment to Africa and supports the concept of borderless mobile telecoms services across the continent."
About Ecobank Group
Incorporated in Lomé, Togo, Ecobank Transnational Incorporated (ETI) is the parent company of the leading independent regional banking group in Africa. It currently operates in 30 African countries, namely: Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo (Brazzaville), Congo (Democratic Republic), Côte d'Ivoire, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Liberia, Malawi, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The group also has an affiliate in Paris and representative offices in Dubai, Johannesburg and Luanda.. ETI is listed on the stock exchanges in Lagos, Accra and the West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA) the BRVM. The Group has over 10, 000 employees from 35 different countries in over 750 branches. Ecobank is a full-service bank providing wholesale, retail, investment and transactional banking services to governments, financial institutions, multinationals, SMEs and individuals. For more information, please visit: http://www.ecobank.com.
About Bharti Airtel
Bharti Airtel Limited is a leading global telecommunications company with operations in 19 countries across Asia and Africa. The company offers mobile voice & data services, fixed line, high speed broadband, IPTV, DTH, turnkey telecom solutions for enterprises and national & international long distance services to carriers. Bharti Airtel has been ranked among the six best performing technology companies in the world by BusinessWeek. Bharti Airtel had over 223 million customers across its operations at the end of April 2011. To know more please visit, for more information, visit www.airtel.in For more information please send an email to: contact@ecobank.com or michael.okwiri@airtel.com
