Cellulant to Provide Barclays Banks with Mobile Banking Services

As part of its, ‘One Africa’ strategy, Barclays Africa has now teamed up with Cellulant to make its customer digital experience – mobile and internet banking as well as ATMs -more convenient for customers across its 12 African countries, by deploying a new aggregator platform.

Cellulant which already provides 32 banks with mobile banking services will give support to Barclays Africa bank branches all over the 12 countries they are in. Barclays Africa, Corporate Banking Managing Director, John Gachora, said that “the new deal will facilitate the banks strategic efforts to provide convenient consumer access platforms. The partnership will also allow the bank to innovate and develop new products and services for its customers across Africa.”

Mobile marketing has become one of the important offerings for banks in Africa. With only your phone, one can check their bank balance, deposit money in their accounts with agents, transfer money from various accounts and receive alerts on deposits and activities on selected bank accounts. With the mobile networks penetrating African markets at rapid speed, mobile banking services like the one Cellulant offers, is making banking easier.

In this new model, which will be rolled out in a phased approach, Cellulant will provide a merchant/bill payment platform as well as a Mobile Network Operator (MNO) aggregator to facilitate mobile commerce solutions’ for Barclays Africa. The new aggregator platform, Ndichu explained, will be deployed in Ghana, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Egypt, Mauritius, Mozambique, Tanzania, Uganda, Seychelles, Botswana and Kenya, thereby allowing its users across the continent to enjoy mobile banking, merchant payments and other banking services on a multi-channelled approach. This means that users with a Barclay’s account, can use their mobile phones to pay for goods and services and pay for utilities.

Most major banks in Kenya have appended this model of banking. The most common application of mobile banking is using mobile network solutions such as M-Pesa, Airtel Money and Orange Money, and connecting them to customer’s accounts. Users can transfer money between their accounts and these network channels. But with third parties as Cellulant, people can do more with their accounts.

Cellulant is one of the leading mobile banking providers in Africa and has an estimated turn over of Kshs 10 Billion around $120 million.