Ripple Partner Tapped by Western Union for Cross-border Payments in Africa

The partnership would enable customers to receive money from over 200 countries.

MFS Africa, a Ripple partner, has partnered with global American financial services giant Western Union.

Benjamindada.com, a Nigerian-based online media platform dedicated to reporting on African tech startups, was the first to report this yesterday. The partnership will allow customers to send money from nearly anywhere globally to mobile wallets in Africa powered by MFS Africa’s payment rails.

As disclosed in the report, the service is set to debut in Madagascar. However, no precise timeline is given for this. Hassan Chatila, Global Head of Account Payout Network, Western Union, commenting on the partnership, said:

“Innovation, commitment to customer focus and financial inclusion are at the heart of everything we do at Western Union. We are deeply committed to the region and remain focused on advancing cross-border money movement solutions for the people in this region, their communities as well as the broader economy. Through our collaboration with MFS Africa, we look forward to achieving our common critical role in getting money to the places where and when it is most needed.“

It is worth noting that MFS Africa partnered with Ripple in November to leverage its On-Demand Liquidity (ODL) service to facilitate near-instant mobile payments for customers in 35 countries. Recall that this solution uses XRP as a bridge currency to facilitate cross-border payments.

MFS Africa, touted as Africa’s largest hub for mobile payments, claims to connect over 400 million mobile money wallets and 200 million bank accounts across Africa to facilitate cross-platform and cross-border payments for customers.

The partnership between MFS Africa and Western Union is the latest in a growing list of collaborations between Ripple partners and traditional finance giants. Most recently, Airwallex announced a partnership with American Express to allow merchants to accept American Express card payments.

Source