Airtel’s mobile commerce product has been named the ‘Best Mobile Money Service’ in Ghana at the Mobile World Ghana Telecoms Awards. AirtelMoney has been praised by industry players for its innovative features and secured nature. It has been expanding over the past few months roping in more banks and business outlets in the process.According to a press release from Airtel, the organisers of the awards say Airtel Money was found to be the best among similar services deployed on the market and provided a seamless, simple to understand mobile based experience for users. “…while at the same time being reliable, consistent and providing value to the user.”The Managing Director at Airtel Ghana, Philip Sowah said; “We have developed Airtel Money as a product tailored to meet the needs of our customers”. The award comes on the heels of anticipation that Airtel Rwanda, which launched operations late in March this year plans to rollout a similar product in the country to compete with TIGO Rwanda and MTN Rwanda. Mobile money transfer is increasingly becoming a lucrative venture, especially for mobile phone operators in the country. Last year the central bank licensed TIGO Rwanda to operate mobile money services, joining MTN Rwanda, which pioneered the product in the country.According to official figures, from January to November 2011, a total of 7.9 billion transferred through mobile money out of 697,497 transactions. The product has created some 1,387 jobs in form agents. The central bank says that in the domain of remittances, three companies have been licensed as money transfer service providers, bringing the total number of companies to twelve while several banks offer mobile banking services.
