Orange Launches Orange Money in Kenya

Orange Kenya in partnership with Equity Bank unveiled their money transfer service last week to their customers. The service is mapped to a bank account to allow Orange subscribers access to financial services using their mobile phones. Orange money is different from the other mobile money transfer services in Kenya, combining money transfer and mobile banking to provide a richer banking experience for its customers.

The Orange money service in Kenya is currently hosted on Equity bank's mobile banking platform, giving customers the convenience that comes with a bank account.

The difference between Orange Money and the other money transfer services:

Orange money provides the following services, on top of its money transfer feature that supports money deposits, sending money and withdrawing money through your bank account using your mobile phone.

• Making purchases
• Paying bills
• Managing Payrolls
• Repaying Loans
• Mini Statements
• Stock Prices
• Forex Rates
• Full bank Statements
• New Cheque Books
• Stopping Cheques
• Stopping a Card

Benefits of Orange Money:

• Convenience: You can directly access your bank account from your phone and can send money to any mobile phone network and any bank using your phone.

• Security: Unlike the traditional mobile money transfer solutions you can store unlimited amounts of money and your funds have deposit protection. Transactions are subjected to the processes and procedures of a bank.

• Time Efficient: Currently you incur a cost to move money from a bank account to a traditional mobile money transfer system, after which you have to pay additionally for sending money. Time and effort is also required to deposit money via agents into a traditional mobile money transfer system. However, with Orange Money, you transact your bank account using your phone, thereby saving time and energy.

• Rich Functionality: Since real bank accounts are transacted using the phone as an access channel, limits are higher than traditional mobile money transfer solutions. To protect customer interests, we have set the current limit at Sh. 100,000. You can also minimize errors of transactions by using the phonebook lookup to access the receiver’s details.

• Easy Registration: If you have an existing Equity account, you do not need to open a new one to access Orange Money – you can just link your existing account to Orange Money. If you are a new customer, then the registration process is quick and easy – you just fill a one page form, either provide two photos or have an agent take your photo. Your application will be sent to a central processing centre and once successful you will receive an SMS with your 5-digit PIN.

This convergence of Orange Kenya and Equity Bank seeks to tap into the unbanked Kenyan population by extending financial services through mobile phones that have a higher penetration rate in rural Kenya. The service is a first of its kind in Africa and it has already been launched in 5 other African countries. It will be rolled out in 19 countries in Africa and the Middle East.