Airtel has introduced a cross-border money-transfer service for Airtel Money customers between the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Zambia and Rwanda.
The service is aimed at facilitating remittances and regional trades at low cost with ubiquitous distribution network between African countries. At present, Airtel has over 30 million customer wallets in 17 countries. The operators? customers use Airtel Money for P2P money transfers, airtime-data plan subscription, bill payments and for purchasing host of other goods and services. Airtel Money has more than 20,000 agents across the three countries promoting Airtel Money service along with newly launched remittance service.
At present, the average fee to remit money in Africa is the highest in the world. According to the Overseas Development Institute, the average fee to remit money in Africa is between 12 per cent and 20 per cent. Further, the World Bank recently reported that an additional $4 billion could be saved if international remittance fees fell to five per cent (G8 average), contributing further to the positive social and economic impacts of remittances as a source of income.
