2019 is proving to be a year of firsts for South Sudan. Soon after the Liquid Telecom announced its plans to set up South Sudan’s first fibre broadband network, Zain Telecoms has launched a mobile money service in the country.
This is set to be the first mobile money service in South Sudan in partnership with Trinity Parties.
M-gurush, which translates to money in Arabic, is licensed by the Bank of South Sudan and the National Communication Authority of South Sudan.
The advent of M-Pesa in Kenya promoted financial inclusion and, as shown by numerous studies, brought with it a boom in innovation, at a scale previously not thought possible in the country.
M-gurush is set to do the same for Africa’s youngest country.
South Sudan has a population of 12 Million people, of whom an estimated 4 million own mobile phones.
Before the mobile money service was launched, unlicensed digital money operators reigned supreme in the country.
Ladu Kenyi, the Chairperson of National Communication Authority, said that m-gurush will curb the weak financial sector which has largely been caused by high illiteracy rates, lack of identity cards, low coverage and money laundering.
Trinity Technologies Vice President Mr. Joseph Arinaitwe while describing the service said,” The platform provides consumers with a robust offering of products that cut across, Service Payments, Airtime top-up and money transfer services.”
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The service will serve majority of the country’s previously excluded individuals; among them women, the disabled, and Small and Medium-sized Enterprises SMEs.
Users will be able to send amounts between South Sudan Pounds (SSP) 1 and 100 ($0.768) for free, while the cost of sending between 501 pounds ($3.85) to 1,000 pounds ($7.68) is 15 SSP ($0.115).
Overall, users can send and receive up to SSP 100,000 ($768) per day and hold a balance of SSP200,000 ($1,536) in their mobile wallets.
