Skip to main content

Visa and Halotel bring secure and convenient mobile payments for Tanzanians


Visa, the global payments technology company, has announced a strategic partnership with Halotel to enable Visa on mobile payments on Halotel’s HaloPesa wallet in Tanzania. 

The service will be rolled out in early 2019 thereby enabling HaloPesa’s one million registered wallet holders to use Visa on mobile to securely make merchant payments and conduct cash deposits and withdrawals at Visa agents. Any HaloPesa customer, including those who do not have a bank account, will be able to benefit from the solution. The aim is to connect more Tanzanians to the global payment system, bringing secure and convenient mobile commerce for consumers and merchants. 

“We are excited about this partnership with a key mobile service provider such as Halotel. Our partnership with Halotel will ensure that Tanzanians can pay using Visa on their mobiles at over 40,000 new retailers. It will also help expand financial inclusion for Tanzanian consumers who will now be able to benefit from participating in the Visa eco-system", said Visa acting General Manager for East Africa, Kevin Langley.

Halotel is the fastest growing mobile network operator in Tanzania and started operations in 2015. In 3 years, Halotel has gained 4 million subscribers with 1 million mobile money accounts branded HaloPesa and 40,000 mobile money agents.

“We are proud to partner with Visa on this initiative. With this partnership, we will have the power of the Visa network to deliver interoperable standards and enable our customers to pay and get paid seamlessly.” said Halotel’s Deputy Managing Director Nguyen Van Son.

Through the partnership, HaloPesa will offer consumers the option to pay a merchant with interoperable Visa QR Codes that are being rolled out as part of Visa on mobile expansion in the market. 

Visa on mobile enables consumers to access their funds directly from their bank accounts via their mobile banking app to pay merchants, send money to individuals at no transaction fee, as well as deposit, or withdraw cash at any Visa agent.  

Enrolled merchants will receive a unique QR code with a Till Number that customers can scan using a smartphone or key enter using a feature phone respectively to make the payments. The funds move directly from the consumer’s bank account into the merchant’s account and provides real-time notification to both parties. 

Enrolled bank agents will also receive a QR code with a Till Number that consumers can scan using a smartphone or key in a USSD code from a feature phone respectively to deposit or withdraw funds into or from enabled bank accounts. 

This partnership reinforces Visa’s commitment to expand mobile payments acceptance worldwide.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Narok School benefits from a Dormitory Courtesy of Procter and Gamble

STUDENTS OF OLOIGERO PRIMARY SCHOOL POSE FOR A PHOTO WITH THE P&G TEAM AND PARTNERS OUTSIDE THE NEWLY BUILT DOMITORY Pupils of Oloigero Primary School in Narok County have a reason to smile after Procter and Gamble funded the construction of a girl’s dormitory in the school. The facility, which will accommodate 80 girls, will help support and improve the access to quality education in the area. “Access to quality education is affected by a myriad of challenges in this country. Inadequate infrastructure is one of them.  The situation is even more dire for our girls thus the reason we are here today to commission this dormitory. We believe that this facility will be a critical resource to help keep our girls in school and together with other partners we will work to ensure that we change the narrative about girls missing school due to menstruation,” said Anthony Ng’ang’a,  Associate Brand Director -Commercial Leader - East Africa at Procter & Gamble (P&G)...

Decentralized finance as a key driver of the financial ecosystem in Africa

Decentralized finance has come a long way from being a term only known to tech insiders. Although still in the early stages of development, Defi has the potential to open the door to a new industry within the African financial ecosystem. Africa is home to some of the world's fastest-growing economies, has a young population and has proven to be a fertile market for digital financial services. The continent leads the world in mobile money adoption, with digital transactions in Africa accounting for more than 45% of global mobile money transactions All these factors make the continent a strong candidate for the adoption of new financial services and technology. As the younger population on the continent grows, the need for financial inclusion increases. As much as banks are crucial to poverty reduction and sustainable growth, they have been unable to fill this gap. As a result, mobile money and open banking platforms are rapidly taking over the role of many banks. Both are leveraging...

Boehringer Ingelheim rolls out training programme for local health innovators

Some of the innovators from Kenya, Ghana and Nigeria during the Making More Health accelerator workshop Boehringer Ingelheim, one of the world’s leading pharmaceutical companies, has called on innovators in Africa to adopt viable business models for their enterprises to ensure growth and sustainability. Speaking during a two-day training workshop for social entrepreneurs Eduardo Lioy, Director Corporate Strategy Development at Boehringer Ingelheim said the firm has invested heavily in training innovators and social entrepreneurs especially in human and animal health in an effort to tackle unmet human and animal health needs. The 'Making More Health’ (MMH) Accelerator programme was launched last year and brings together African social entrepreneurs, Ashoka, an innovators platform and Boehringer Ingelheim's’ leaders from around the globe to brainstorm on ways to enhance the start-ups business models and identify opportunities for strategic collaboration to improv...