China's Huawei partners to launch mobile money service in Africa

NAIROBI — Chinese tech giant Huawei said Tuesday it has partnered with British money transfer service operator WorldRemit to enable African expatriates to send money home to millions of subscribers of Huawei's mobile money service platform across Africa.

The deal will enable Huawei to add a ready-made solution for remittances - a growing mobile money product offering - to its existing suite of services.

"International remittance is a very important mobile money service in Africa, and our partnership with WorldRemit will bring international remittances directly to Huawei's customers across the continent," David Chen, vice president of Huawei Southern Africa said in a statement.

"Huawei is committed to providing advanced mobile money platforms and technologies to global mobile money operators," Chen said.

By enabling WorldRemit to connect to over 100 million mobile accounts currently using Huawei's platform, the deal is said to improve access to mobile money remittance for millions of people.

WorldRemit is the first international remittance company to partner directly with Huawei. The deal is expected to accelerate WorldRemit's technical integrations with new mobile money operators. Technical integration is frequently a barrier to offering international remittances for mobile network operators.

The technology works on both smartphones and basic handsets, so it is expected to be particularly successful in developing markets.