Vodafone launches M-Pesa in Ghana

Vodafone has extended M-Pesa to Ghana, the 11th Vodafone market across Africa, Asia and Europe to benefit from the world’s leading mobile money transfer service.

The launch of the service, operating in Ghana under the ‘Vodafone Cash’ brand, follows a successful pilot launched in August 2015. Around 15 million people – approximately 64% of the population of Ghana – do not have bank accounts. As in other markets, M-Pesa now offers Ghanaians an efficient way to transfer money safely, securely and conveniently, at home, at work and on the move.

Vodafone Director of Mobile Money Michael Joseph said: “Vodafone Cash extends the revolution of mobile money to Ghana, liberating our customers from the risks associated with carrying cash at all times. The strong demand for the service following the pilot launched in August shows that Ghanaians greatly value the freedom, peace of mind, security and convenience that M-Pesa offers.”

M-Pesa has continued to see strong, accelerated growth in East Africa during 2015, most notably in Kenya and Tanzania. Worldwide M-Pesa usage has increased 27% year-on-year to reach 23.4 million active customers across Vodafone Group by 30 September 2015.

M-Pesa customers are served by more than 240,000 agents. More than 2 billion individual M-Pesa transactions were carried out in the six months to September 2015, up 26% compared to the same period last year.

To date there are around 665,000 active users of M-Pesa in India, where the service was granted approval in principle by the Reserve Bank of India to establish a payments bank.

In May 2015, Vodafone Albania launched M-Pesa becoming the second Vodafone market in Europe to offer the service. International money transfers between M-Pesa customers in Kenya and Tanzania were launched in April 2015. M-Pesa and MTN Mobile Money reached agreement to enable direct money transfers between their respective customers in seven countries across East Africa.