Airtel Africa & Finablr Set to Enable Seamless Cross-Border Payments

Airtel Africa Plc and Finablr have partnered to collectively set up an initiative that will enable seamless cross-border payments.

Finablr is a global platform that enables payments and foreign exchange solutions payments. Airtel Africa, on the other hand, is one of the biggest telecommunications companies in Africa.

Both companies will leverage the partnership to integrate Airtel Africa’s mobile money operations with Finablr’s technology platform.

According to Raghunath Mandava, the CEO of Airtel Africa, the partnership paves way for Airtel money to offer cross border payment services.

In his words, “We are excited that Airtel Money will collaborate with Finablr to introduce global payments services, enable customers to make cross-border remittances, pay bills, make purchases and withdraw cash from our outlets and agents across the continent.”

The partnership will grant Airtel Africa access to Finablr’s global payments connectivity, its technology platform, omnichannel sourcing and distribution capabilities that spans across over 170 countries.

Leveraging the partnership, banked and unbanked Airtel users will have access to global online payments via the Airtel Money Mastercard virtual card. They can access this service even without a bank account.

It is important to recall that Airtel has ventured into strategic partnerships in recent times. The telco partnered Ecobank to grant Airtel Money users access to online deposits and withdrawals from their mobile money wallets and Ecobank accounts.

The partnership also grants Airtel Money users access to in-store merchant payments, real-time domestic and intra-Africa funds transfers and loan facilities.

The Telco also partnered Mastercard to provide its Airtel Money users with virtual debit, pre-paid and physical cards. The partnership with Finablr is another icing to Airtel Africa’s partnership cake.