In Africa, mobile money has become the most popular alternative to bank accounts. In that promising ecosystem, the competition is ever high, supported by development partners willing to boost financial inclusion. 

 The International Finance Corporation (IFC) announced, Wednesday (July 13), a partnership agreement with Orange Bank Africa (OBA) to support digital finance services. Notably, the agreement will improve access to finance for agents and merchants operating in the West African mobile money ecosystem. 

"Through the partnership with IFC, our bank aims to strengthen its collaboration with the thousands of agents and merchants, in particular in rural areas, who play a key role in the mobile money ecosystem. More generally, this project is in line with our mission to improve access to financial services in the region by leveraging transformations in the digital sector,” said Jean-Louis Menann-Kouamé, CEO of  Orange Bank Africa.

The two partners will carry out a pilot phase in Côte d’Ivoire by providing liquidity to Orange Money agents to help them meet their clients’ needs. Indeed, agents, who are mostly underbanked, usually face liquidity constraints and are sometimes forced to reject transactions. As a result, they hinder both their growth and financial inclusion. 

In addition to providing access to financing for Orange Money agents, “IFC will provide advisory services to Orange Bank Africa to help the mobile bank develop and test innovative and scalable digital lending products that meet the specific needs of mobile money agents as well as merchants accepting this type of payment.”

The partnership signed by the IFC and Orange comes a few days after Wave, one of Orange's competitors, secured a €90 million financing package arranged by the IFC. At the time, the IFC explained that the financial support “will help establish a mobile money environment where customers can transact more often thanks to a simple fee structure and lower transaction costs.” 

Samira Njoya