Airtel Zambia has partnered with Standard Chartered Bank Zambia to launch their new mobile money wallet platform dubbed “Straight2Bank.”
Straight2Bank wallet platform in Zambia will enable customers to instantly send money directly from their Standard Chartered Bank account to an Airtel Money account as well as move funds from their Airtel Money account into their bank account
Standard Chartered Bank Zambia Head of Retail Banking Zambia and Southern Africa Sonny Zulu speaking on the recent development said;
“With this service, clients are now able to effectively reach out to their beneficiaries with timely payments, while mitigating the risks of fraud and theft associated with cash payments. The unique proposition ensures that customers have the flexibility to transfer money from their accounts to mobile money wallets. In addition to this, the service can be accessed internationally giving clients the flexibility to make payments to mobile wallets and Standard Chartered accounts beneficiaries in Zambia while they are abroad.”
Airtel Zambia’s Chief Commercial Officer Apoorva Mehrotra also commented;
“Airtel is determined to contribute to the 2017 national financial inclusion strategy (by the Bank of Zambia) which supported institutions to leverage on digital technologies to reduce costs and expand financial services to both the formal and informal sectors.”
The platform will look to help the unbanked section of Zambia as according to the Bank of Zambia, only 40% of Zambia’s 16 million people are banked. The partnership will thus aid in this by helping customers use mobile money ecosystems to pay and receive funds electronically from mobile phones, at any time and any location, added Mehrotra.
Airtel Zambia has around 5 million customers and is only second to MTN Zambia as the country’s biggest telecoms operators
