- Bharti Airtel partnering with Western Union to roll out a real-time, cross-border payment service shortly.
- Service is said to launch anytime this year.
- Airtel’s payment service has millions of customers with over 500K banking points across India.
- It’s not only a leading telecom provider but Airtel’s payment services are famous across 14 African markets.
Cross-border payment facilitator – Western Union joined hands with Airtel to launch real-time payment services for their customers across India and Africa. Airtel’s payment services will get a strong boost after Western Union expressing its interest in the service.
Telecom Giant, Bharti Airtel already offers payment services through the Airtel Payment Bank service in India and a mobile wallet offering the same in Africa.
This collaboration will offer another channel for real-time cross-border money movement in India. Airtel Payment Bank users can soon direct a Western Union money transfer into their bank accounts at any time of the day through this real-time app.
More than 15 million Airtel Money wallet users from Nigeria, Uganda, Gabon, Tanzania, Zambia, Malawi, Madagascar, Kenya, Congo, Niger, Tchad, Rwanda, and Seychelles are said to benefit from this app.
“Collaborating with Western Union on these two flagship initiatives in both India and Africa reflects Airtel’s keen commitment to transform the quality of lives of millions of people across emerging and developing markets, providing connectivity and digital empowerment,”- Bharti Airtel chairman Sunil Mittal. (Source)
After rolling out Airtel’s payment service (collaborating with Western Union) senders from overseas would be able to push funds directly to an Airtel Money mobile wallet in real-time and store value or pay for goods and services.
“International remittances into Africa are a lifeline to some of our customers. This partnership will give our customers the convenience and security of directly receiving and sending remittances from their Airtel’s payment services. This will now automatically be credited and debited through their Airtel mobile money wallets on their phones and can immediately access funds to pay bills or merchants and transfer fund to family or friends and convert to cash from the widespread Airtel Money agents, kiosks and branches” – Raghunath Mandaya, CEO of Airtel Africa.
Airtel’s payment services will not only add to other payment services within the country, but it will ease transactions coming from people outside India. With Western Union by their side, it will be achieved.
Conclusion:
After getting a tough war with telecoms, the company is shifting its focus on Airtel’s payment services. This comes after realizing that Airtel cannot gain a competitive advantage if they only focus on telecom as a mere mobile operator.
Though Airtel’s payment services reported a loss of ₹338.8 crores in 2018-19, the giant is now focusing to uplift the services and hope to come back with a bang.
Talking about Western Union, the gain has more than 40 banking and payment partnerships in over 100 countries. With this collaboration, Airtel’s payment services will get a strong foothold in India as well as overseas.
After going deeply into debts, let’s hope with their payment services this might a turnaround for the telecom company.
