The mobile payments company Fortumo, partnering with Safaricom has launched its carrier billing service in Kenya for digital content merchants. The partnership will allow more than 18 million Safaricom customers from Kenya to make payments online and inside mobile apps by charging their purchases to their mobile phone bills.
The latest partnership marks the 3rd country covered by Fortumo's carrier billing service in Sub-Saharan Africa, adding to similar services in Nigeria and South Africa. According to Fortumo, its carrier billing is available in 15 markets in the Middle Eastern & African region. The company added that with the fast growth of smartphones, Sub-Saharan Africa is expected to present great opportunities for global app stores such as Google Play and Microsoft Store who, due to the limited usage of credit cards and also banking services in the region, are likely to see higher uptake on their offerings due to the availability of carrier billing services. As part of its business expansion plans, Fortumo has also partnered with smartphone makers such as ZTE, Gionee and Oppo to enable them to generate revenue from content preloaded onto their smartphones.
Gerri Kodres, Chief Business Officer of Fortumo
Emerging markets like Kenya have become the biggest drivers of smartphone growth globally as cheap smartphones are becoming available to millions of people in growing economies. Meanwhile, digital content merchants are struggling to generate revenue from these users due to low credit card penetration. Here Fortumo helps solve the issue for merchants by allowing any person – banked or unbanked – to make payments online through carrier billing instead.
