M-Pesa’s European Expansion

Vodafone has launched its M-Pesa program in Romania, marking the first time the successful mobile payments system has ever been available in Europe. M-Pesa uses SMS to transfer money and make payments. In its African instantiation it mainly targeted toward the unbanked, though the Romanian edition will also allow customers with bank accounts to make mobile money transfers.

Vodafone has launched its M-Pesa program in Romania, marking the first time the successful mobile payments system has ever been available in Europe.

M-Pesa uses SMS to transfer money and make payments. In its African instantiation it mainly targeted toward the unbanked, though the Romanian edition will also allow customers with bank accounts to make mobile money transfers.

“The majority of people in Romania have at least one mobile device, but more than one third of the population do not have access to conventional banking,”  said Michael Joseph, director of mobile money at Vodafone,.

The new expansion into Romania comes as part of Vodafone’s recent attempts to strengthen M-Pesa. The company also recently launched M-Pesa in India in partnership with ICICI Bank.

 

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