The mobile payments company Fortumo has expanded its carrier billing services to 3 new African markets. More than 79 million mobile phone owners in Algeria, Ghana and Tanzania can now make payments for digital services.
All three markets where Fortumo has launched have extremely low credit card penetration: Algeria at 6%, Ghana at 0.9% and Tanzania at 0.7%. This means while people can access online content, most of them are unable to make payments for paid features of these services, said the company.
Carrier billing solves this problem by allowing any mobile owner to make payments conveniently through their carrier and either deduct payments from their airtime balance or charge them to their monthly phone bill.
Fortumo services app stores including Google Play, digital media providers including Spotify, Sony, HOOQ, Gaana and gaming companies like EA Mobile, Gameloft and Kinguin with carrier billing, local market insights and facilitates relationships with mobile operators.
In recent news from the region, Fortumo has announced partnerships with the live streaming platform Fission and daily deals service mydala for carrier billing.
Gerri Kodres, Chief Business Officer, Fortumo
Africa’s digital ecosystem is quickly growing and we are seeing strong interest from international merchants who want to expand their activities there. While each day a large amount of new smartphone owners are coming online, collecting payments from these users has so far been a challenge.
