VeriFone Mobile Money and Airtel Africa Group Announce Master Agreement for the roll out of Merchant Enablement across Africa

NAIROBI, Kenya, Aug. 20, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- VeriFone Mobile Money and Airtel Africa, part of the Bharti Airtel Group, today announced that they had reached an agreement to offer VeriFone Mobile Money's merchant enablement applications for mobile Tap n Pay across their 17 operating companies in Africa. VeriFone Mobile Money's Tap n Pay applications are a smart, secure and fast way for customers to pay, buy, bank, bill and remit money with their mobile phone at the point of sale.

Chidi Okpala, Director & Head of Airtel Money - Africa, stated, "Airtel is excited to offer VeriFone Mobile Money's applications to our teeming Airtel Mobile Money customers across Africa. Using their Airtel Money Wallet with VeriFone's contactless / NFC point of sale terminals our customers will have a more convenient, fast and secure way to make multiple payment transactions utilizing Tap n Pay.

"With this solution, we will be at the forefront of efforts to transform payments systems within the public mass transit and retail sectors in Africa."

"Africa has one of the most evolved mobile money systems in the world," said Chris Jones, VeriFone Mobile Money's CEO. "Over 42 million people across Africa according to the GSMA are actively using mobile money services and there are more than 520,000 registered mobile money agents across the continent. With only 22% of Africans holding a bank account or credit facility, we fully expect the number of people to quadruple as mobile financial services offer the 'unbanked' a way to transact, pay bills and build assets."

"We are excited to partner closely with Airtel Africa Group to design a unique offering to drive Africa's mobile money evolution," stated Mr. Jones. "The partnership will enable our teams to work together with banks, insurance and transport companies to expand access to mobile financial tools and services for Airtel Money customers."

VeriFone Mobile Money has signed a group master agreement for the delivery of its merchant enablement solutions to Airtel Africa part of the Bharti Airtel Group of companies with operations in 20 countries across Asia and Africa. VeriFone Mobile Money will implement a full suite of Retail Enablement applications integrated to VeriFone's range of payment devices across the group, enabling the deployment of Mobile POS (mPOS), POS and Biometrics for International Remittance to Airtel Money customers, the solution will enable fast and secure transaction processing at the agents point of sale.

VeriFone's payment devices are compact, easy to install and easy for both merchant and customer to use. They accommodate a wide variety of card payment options including NFC, mobile wallets, EMV, and contactless payments.

Media Relations:

Alex Mercer – Mercer Palmer – alex@mercerpalmer.com 
Marketing Communications – marketing@verifonemobilemoney.com 
PH: +1 (415) 830-3759

About VeriFone Mobile Money (www.verifonemobilemoney.com)

VeriFone Mobile Money is a joint venture between VeriFone Systems Inc. and Mobilis Networks Limited to provide complete mobile money solutions designed to meet the needs of mobile operators for telco-based money transfer and payment services in emerging markets.

About Airtel Africa 
(www.africa.airtel.com) 

Airtel is driven by the vision of providing innovative mobile services to all. Airtel has operations across Africa in: Burkina Faso, Chad, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Republic of the Congo, Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Madagascar, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia.

About Bharti Airtel 
(www.airtel.in)

Bharti Airtel Limited is a leading global telecommunications company with operations in 20 countries across Asia and Africa. Headquartered in New Delhi, India, the company ranks amongst the top 4 mobile service providers globally in terms of subscribers. In India, the company's product offerings include 2G, 3G and 4G wireless services, mobile commerce, fixed line services, high speed DSL broadband, IPTV, DTH, enterprise services including national & international long distance services to carriers. In the rest of the geographies, it offers 2G, 3G wireless services and mobile commerce. Bharti Airtel had over 287 million customers across its operations at the end of December 2013.