UAE-based Instant Cash partners for African remittances

UAE-based money transfer firm Instant Cash has partnered with transaction processing, clearing and settlement service TerraPay to deliver cross-border money transfers to mobile wallets.

A member of the Emirates Post Group, Instant Cash is a UAE government-owned money transfer company with offices in Qatar, Oman, Kuwait, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Philippines and Kenya, and has a network of over 250,000 locations across the globe.

The partnership aims to make cross-border money transfer faster and more convenient for expatriates.

In the initial rollout, TerraPay has enabled Instant Cash customers to send remittances to mobile wallets in Nigeria, Tanzania and Uganda.

In Nigeria, customers can send money to any mobile number as well as bank accounts.

In Tanzania, customers will be able to send remittances directly to Vodacom M-Pesa, Tigo Pesa, Airtel Money and Zantel Ezy Pesa wallets.

In Uganda, meanwhile, friends and families of expatriates can receive money in their MTN and Airtel Money wallets. The service is expected to expand shortly in other countries in Africa which have a very high adoption of mobile money.

Instant Cash’s acting CEO Philip C Daniel said, “We are looking at expanding our customer base in Uganda, Nigeria and Tanzania through this strategic partnership. This means we are now able to widen our mobile money wallet reach into relevant African markets that have expat populations in the GCC. It’s time for Africa.”

 Ambar Sur, founder and CEO of TerraPay, said, “Mobile money plays an important role in bringing the financially excluded into the formal economy and drive remittances through formal channels. Our strategic partnership will bring the convenience of mobile wallets to the global customer base of Instant cash, making cross-border remittances faster, accessible and cheaper for the consumers.”