Xpress Money partners with Huawei offering 'financial solution' to world's unbanked

Xpress Money, a London-based money transfer brand, has paired with Huawei to drive mobile money services to areas where banking isn’t available, like Africa.

The partnership will give the remittance firm access to Huawei’s mobile money service platform, which has over 100m mobile money accounts globally.

Huawei’s mobile money services platform delivers basic banking transactions in developing countries. The technology is not restricted; it works on smartphones and other handsets.

David Chen, director of marketing and solution sales at Huawei, said: “We want to bring the best remittance services to our network partners and their customers.

“Africa is a key market in the mobile money industry and it’s imperative we give our customers here access to the best services.”

Recipients of Xpress Money remittances can use the service to make online and offline payments, pay for important services like utilities and school fees, as well as financial services like loan applications, insurance and banking.

In 2016, the World Bank reported that two billion people across the globe had no access to formal financial services. This has resulted in mobile money fast becoming a safer alternative to cash.

Sudhesh Giriyan, chief operating officer of Xpress Money, commented: “For those that have limited access to formal banking services, mobile money is a critical technology.

“There are over 500m mobile money accounts currently in use, and with Huawei servicing over 100m of these, we’re confident this collaboration will improve the state of financial services for Africa’s unbanked.”

By growing Xpress Money’s mobile money footprint and strengthening Huawei’s international reach, this partnership aims to help reduce the cost of remittance services and drive financial inclusion for millions of mobile money users in Africa.

Xpress Money’ has a global presence in more than 165 countries across 200,000 agent locations providing money transfer solutions to thousands of customers, every day.