Paypal through Xoom commences money transfers with mobile wallets in 11 African countries.
By leveraging technology to make financial services and commerce more convenient, affordable, and secure, Xoom, a PayPal platform is empowering more than 350 million consumers and merchants in more than 200 markets to join and thrive in the global economy.
Drake Nyamugabwa
PayPal through Zoom commences secure money transfers through mobile wallets in 11 African countries.
Due to the challenges in the largely cash-based system of sending money across borders which can be full of paperwork, high fees, standing in line and an ever-present uncertainty of when, and if, the money will arrive when it’s needed Xoom a Pay Pal product has announced a system to provide fast and secure payment options for customers to seamlessly send money across borders by going online or using a mobile device.
Xoom, PayPal’s money transfer service, has announced that the company’s customers in the US, UK, Canada and Europe cans now send secure and convenient money transfers directly to mobile wallets in key markets across Africa with a focus on the underbanked segment.
This new service expands the company’s offering to send money to mobile wallets in Cameroon, Ghana, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe—with plans to include more markets in 2021 and reduce the cost of sending money to Africa.
Mobile money services are being deployed rapidly across emerging markets as a key tool to further the goal of financial inclusion. Financial inclusion is instrumental in lifting the undeserved population out of poverty and for driving economic growth.
In 2019, the number of globally registered mobile money accounts surpassed the one billion mark. In Ghana, Kenya and Zimbabwe, over 60 percent of adults have mobile money accounts.
According to a Vice President and General Manager Xoom, Julian King said that the new service will expands Xoom’s offerings in Africa as the current service already enables money transfers for cash pick-up, direct banks deposits and mobile reloads to 41 countries in Africa.
“Sending money to Africa through traditional channels has always been expensive. We wanted to help bring down the cost and speed up the process to boost financial inclusion,” said Julian King.
He added that “There is nowhere else in the world that moves more money on mobile phones than Sub-Saharan Africa. While there are only five bank branches per 100,000 people as of 2019 there are 1.04 billion registered mobile money accounts in Sub-Saharan Africa”
The cost of sending money through traditional channels to Africa is one of the most expensive in the world, with an average cost of 9.3 percent. The cost of sending $200 to the Sub-Saharan African region averaged 9 percent in 2018 and in the southern African subregion, the average cost was 18.7 percent, almost three times higher than the global average according to the World Bank.
“Xoom is helping to bring down the cost to significantly with average costs of sending money to mobile wallets in select African markets ranging from 2-4 percent of the transaction” Julian said
Xoom is a fast and secure way to send money, in the digital remittance and pay bills and reload phones for loved ones in over 160 countries globally. These remittances serve as a lifeline for many people around the world and are used to pay for things like utility bills, healthcare, education costs and emergencies.
