Airtel Africa Share News (AAF)

(Sharecast News) - Telecommunications firm Airtel Africa has inked a deal with Western Union that will see the pair partner on a mobile remittance service.
The group's Airtel Money subsidiary reached the strategic partnership with Western Union, a global leader in cross-border, cross-currency money movement and payments, in order to allow customers to reliably send and receive international money transfers directly from their phones using the Airtel Africa mobile money wallet.

Airtel Africa said on Wednesday that the move paved the way for it to further cater for the needs of local and global community members and also helped the group to take an active part in the international money transfer business.

Chief executive Raghunath Mandava said: "International remittances into Africa are a lifeline to some of our customers. This partnership gives our customers the convenience of directly receiving and sending remittances from their Airtel mobile money wallets.

"They will now be automatically credited and debited via their Airtel mobile money wallets on their phone and can immediately access the funds to pay bills or merchants and transfer funds to family and friends or convert to cash from the widespread Airtel Money agents, kiosks and branches."

As of 0825 GMT, Airtel shares were up 1.63% at 71.96p.