Barclays Bank Zambia and Airtel Mobile Commerce Limited have entered into a partnership with the launch of the wallet to bank platform aimed at widening access to financial services in Zambia.
Airtel Money clients will now be able to transfer money from their mobile accounts to Barclays accounts following the launch of “Wallet to Bank” platform.
Airtel Managing Director Apoorva Mehrotha said the company realizes the value of having strategic partnerships.
He said the signing ceremony was proof of how the corporate world is creating synergies to identify more innovative approaches and solutions to the benefit of non-bankers.
Mr Mehrotra said there is a huge potential for the company to leverage on digital technologies and reach the informal sector, especially those living and working in the rural areas.
“Airtel can today attest to the fact that many of the partnerships that we have created overtime have helped us to identify more innovative approaches and solutions for the wider community and it is for this reason that today is indeed another exciting day when technology interlinks with the financial sector, thus bringing to the fore digital financial services,’’ said Mr Mehrotra.
And Barclays Bank Zambia Managing Director, Mrs Mizinga Melu said the partnership with Airtel amplifies the bank’s commitment to a digitally led organization focused on accelerating financial inclusion.
Mrs Melu said the partnership will supplement Governments efforts as prescribed in the 2017 to 2022 national financial inclusion strategy to Improve quality financial delivery channels such as bank branches, agents, Automated Teller Machines(ATM) and mobile phones
She added that Barclays has continued to invest in technology with more than K45 million committed over the last three years.
‘’This partnership cannot be underscored as it will enable us to reach more people particularly the unbanked where we have no presence as a bank,’’ she said.
The two organizations locked hands to launch Bank-to-wallet which provided an avenue for customers to transfer funds from their bank account to their mobile money accounts, a move that exemplified how inter-industry technological and digital convergence between financial service providers and Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) can help drive more financial inclusion and access to the wider population.