PayPal’s remittance service Xoom partners with MFS Africa for international mobile money transfers to Africa

By Pavithra R

PayPal’s remittance service Xoom has announced partnering with leading pan-African FinTech, MFS Africa to offer secure and convenient mobile money transfers to 6 countries across Africa. 

Under the partnership, MFS Africa will connect Xoom to its digital payments hub allowing it’s customers in the UK, Europe and North America to send money to people in Cameroon, Ghana, Rwanda, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe with plans to include more countries on the continent in 2021.

“Africa is a very important market for Xoom, and we are delighted to expand our services in the continent. There is nowhere else in the world that moves more money on mobile phones than Sub-Saharan Africa. While there are only five bank branches per 100,000 people in sub-Saharan Africa as of 2019, there are over a hundred times that number of mobile money agents. Africa has nearly half of the global total of registered mobile money accounts—almost 400 million in total,” said Julian King, Vice President and General Manager, Xoom. 

Xoom already provides money transfers to bank accounts and cash pick-up locations in 160 markets around the world. The collaboration will enable Xoom to continue to expand its presence in Africa by providing transfers to mobile money wallets through MFS Africa’s digitals payments hub. MFS Africa’s hub connects more than 200M mobile wallets in Africa through a single application programming interface (API). 

The collaboration will create new possibilities for remittances in sub-Saharan Africa which is estimated to be worth $51B in 2020, according to the World Bank. The region is still the most expensive in the world to send money to, with an average cost of 9.3%. This partnership will help tackle the issue by giving several African markets access to Xoom’s transparent and competitive pricing. 

“Xoom – and their parent company PayPal – are pioneers in digital-first payments, and we are excited to partner with Xoom to further connect our network to the wider world. Diaspora remittances have always been critical for the livelihood of hundreds of millions of Africans and leveraging digital channels to deliver those remittances has always been an important part of our mission. But in a time of global crisis, when brick-and-mortar money transfer stores are not open, connecting digital payments players in the diaspora to the largest network of mobile wallets in Africa doesn’t just make good business sense – it’s the right thing to do from a public health and human welfare perspective, too,” said Dare Okoudjou, founder and CEO of MFS Africa, commented on the partnership.

Established since 2001, Xoom is a PayPal Service and a leading digital money transfer provider that enables consumers to send money, pay international bills, or reload phones for family and friends around the world. The firm provides fast and secure payment options for customers to send money across borders seamlessly by going online or using a mobile device.