Orange/Ecobank Launch Bank-To-Wallet Money Transfer Service

Through a new partnership, customers of both Ecobank and Orange will have the ability to top up their Orange Money eWallets through their bank accounts and vice versa.

Money can now be transferred between accounts without physical cash or the requirement to go to a distribution location, Orange announced on Monday (March 21), adding that the new service, available in Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea Conakry and Niger, continues the growth of mobile financial services in Africa.

“Since its launch in Jan. 2015 in Mali, this service has been a huge success with close to €110 million transferred between Ecobank and Orange Money accounts,” Thierry Millet, director of Orange Money, Mobile Payment and Contactless, explained in a press release. “This easy-to-use system meets the demands of customers who already have a bank account and who want to use their mobile phones to carry out bank operations, wherever they are in the country and at whatever time of day. Customers will also benefit from the extensive network of thousands of licensed Orange Money vendors, in addition to Ecobank’s own high-street branches, considerably increasing the number of withdrawal points. We are happy to deploy this partnership in large scale,” he continued.

The Orange Money service, which launched in 2008 and is currently available in 14 countries across Africa and the Middle East, allows customers to move money using mobile devices to other accountholders, both across the country and, in some cases, from certain countries to users based abroad.

“We have seen remarkable success in the volume of bank transfers since the beginning of a successful partnership between Ecobank and Orange, and we are confident that this service will also have a great success [in] the new countries that are embarking on this service. It is a platform which highlights the importance of online banking and mobile today and to our commitment in bringing convenient banking services to everyone in central Africa,” Patrick Akinwuntan, group executive of consumer banking at Ecobank Group, said.