Transferring cash between West African neighbours Ivory Coast and Burkina Faso could become easier thanks to mobile giants MTN and Bharti Airtel inking a mobile money agreement.
In a press statement, MTN Group says it has teamed up with Bharti Airtel in a cross-border remittance partnership that “seeks to remove the hassles of transferring money between Ivory Coast and Burkina Faso.”
This means mobile money customers of MTN Ivory Coast and Airtel in Burkina Faso can now transfer money between the neighbouring countries.
“This partnership between Airtel and MTN is quite symbolic; the first time that two leading providers of mobile money services are cooperating to offer a service,” said Pieter Verkade, MTN Group chief commercial officer, in a statement.
“With a sizeable community of Burkinabe working in Ivory Coast and sending money back to their home country, the partnership will greatly enhance the mobile money service for customers in both countries,” said Verkade.
A big pull factor for expatriates to Ivory Coast from nations such as Burkina Faso has been Ivory Coast’s runaway economic growth.
According to BuddeComm research, Ivory Coast notched up gross domestic product (GDP) growth of 9.8% in 2012 and 8% for 2013.
In turn, South Africa’s MTN and France Telecom-owned Orange dominate Ivory Coast’s telecoms market, which has an 83% mobile penetration rate among its over 19 million population, according to BuddeComm research.
In this market, mobile money has also taken off as the GSMA reports that “in June 2013, CelPaid, Moov, MTN, Orange, and Qash Services had together registered close to 5 million mobile money accounts, 35% of which are active.”
Burkina Faso; though, has a far more tame mobile market with a 64% mobile penetration rate according to BuddeComm research. Burkina Faso has a population of just over 16 million according to the World Bank.
“Although market penetration remains below the African average, it continues to grow steadily, including a 30% growth in the number of subscribers in 2012 alone,” says BuddeComm of Burkina Faso.
Meanwhile, mobile money is relatively new to Burkina Faso, as Airtel was the first company to launch the service in the West African nation in 2012.
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