Mobile money operator Orange Money Botswana has partnered pan-African payments company Cellulant to expand services, particularly the mobile transfer service Orange Money Card-To-Wallet.

The alliance with Cellulant will see this service linked to eight local banks via Tingg, Cellulant’s digital payments platform.

Tingg enables merchants to receive, view and reconcile all their payments via a single platform or through their system by integrating Tingg’s Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), eliminating the need to sign up for multiple payments providers.

Orange Money CEO, Seabelo Pilane, said, “The introduction of Card-To-Wallet aligns with our financial inclusion strategy that is centred around providing relevant and convenient solutions that address our customers’ everyday needs, as well as addressing our priorities around placing our customers first.”

Since its introduction in 2011, Orange Money has processed over P4.5-billion in transactions, helping it to secure a a market share of 30%.

Commenting on the partnership, Bathusi Beleme, Cellulant Botswana Country Manager said: “This is in line with our strategy to extend our services to merchants in Botswana with a view of helping them digitise their payments.”

Cellulant subsidiary Tingg offers products like in-store payments which leverage mobile money and mobile banking as payment methods through USSD and QR Codes.

As instant digital payment solutions significantly increase across the continent in recent years, experts have said that Africa accounted for 70% of worldwide mobile money transaction value in 2021.

Cellulant has been in Botswana for over 11 years as a technical solutions partner, providing digital banking and value-added services to the banks in the country.