Mobile Payments company Fortumo has launched carrier billing in Kenya for digital content merchants. The company has made a move to partner with Safaricom in order to take advantage of its 18 million customers located in Kenya. The partnership, according to both parties, will allow Kenyans to make payments online and by charging purchases to their mobile phone bill.
Gerri Kodres, Chief Business Officer of Fortumo, stated that: “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. Fortumo helps solve the issue for merchants by allowing any person – banked or unbanked – to make payments online through carrier billing instead.”
While overall mobile penetration in Kenya is still at around 65% (approximately 27.3 million mobile phones with a population of 42 million), the market is growing very fast and already an estimated 67% of all phones sold are smartphones. Meanwhile, there are only 200 thousand credit cards in circulation (0.3% penetration) making international online transactions impossible for the majority of Kenyans.
Kenya is the 3rd country covered by Fortumo carrier billing in Sub-Saharan Africa, with established connections already in place for Nigeria and South Africa. According to Fortumo, it is available in 15 markets in Middle Eastern & African regions.
Staff Writer
