Accra, Nov.19, GNA – Safaricom and Huawei have jointly received a prestigious Most Innovative Service award dubbed, “the Business of Tomorrow” Award at AfricaCom 2019 in Cape Town.
The Award recognised the two companies for offering the new revolutionary Mobile Money Overdraft service, known as “Fuliza”.
A statement from Integriti News Agency copied to the Ghana News Agency, explained that the service enables users with insufficient funds in their M-PESA accounts to borrow money to complete their M-PESA transactions.
The service, officially launched in January 2019 was gaining popularity in Kenya where Safaricom has over 23.6 million M-PESA users, the statement said.
“Kenyans transacted over KES 6.2 Billion (USD 62M) in Fuliza’s first month after its launch.”
Mr Michael Joseph, the Chief Executive Officer of Safaricom according to the statement said: “M-PESA continues to play a leading role in deepening financial inclusion in the country.
“Fuliza enriches our mobile financial services portfolio further fulfilling our promise to always provide our customers with relevant products and services that meet them at their point of need. We are glad to partner with Huawei in bringing this commitment to life,” the statement noted.
Fuliza is empowered by the Huawei Mobile Money Finance Overdraft Platform which allows design, development and deployment of innovate finance products.
It was created to enable credit overdraft facilities in multiple payment scenarios in a highly secure and stable way.
The statement noted that, Huawei over the years was working with Safaricom in improving its mobile financial services and developing new products, especially for loans and savings to grow Small and Medium-sized Enterprises.
Mr David Chen, the Director of Marketing & Solution Sales, Huawei Southern Africa Region, was quoted as saying: “Financial services required security and stability. These two elements are in the DNA of all Huawei’s ICT solutions.
“We have focused on building a world-class Application Programming Interface (API) to enable the local ICT ecosystem to tap into M-PESA to serve the needs of our client for business success and nurture the digital economy from a macro perspective.”
AfricaCom is Africa’s biggest telecoms and technology event which takes place annually in Cape Town, South Africa.
The statement said Huawei, during the three-day event showcased its end-to-end 5G ability, facilitating the industry’s digital transformation through innovative tools, platforms and solutions and explored new opportunities emerging for the industry from the new technologies.
With integrated solutions across four key domains – telecom networks, IT, smart devices, and cloud services, Huawei was committed to bringing digital to every person, home and organisation for a fully connected, intelligent world.
Through open collaboration with ecosystem partners, it creates lasting value for customers, and works to empower people, enrich home life, and inspire innovation in organisations, the statement noted.
“At Huawei, innovation focuses on customer needs. We invest heavily in basic research, concentrating on technological breakthroughs that drive the world forward.
“We have more than 180,000 employees, and operate in more than 170 countries and regions. Founded in 1987, Huawei is a private company fully owned by its employees,” the statement added.
GRB