Societe Generale and Obopay Launch Multi-Country Partnership

June 28th, 2010

We were pleased to announce this morning a new multi-country relationship with Societe Generale, starting  in Senegal, and were glad to see the breadth of coverage in banking and wireless publications that agree this is going to transform the way people live and work.  This new service, Yoban’tel by Obopay, will bring unique mobile money access to millions and make significant changes in their lives.  As one example, someone who wants to pay their utility bill in Senegal must stand in line for hours with cash in hand—every month.  This service will allow any Senegalese resident who owns a mobile phone to send money to friends or merchants using a simple SMS transaction

And the fact that payment is instant means something else unique to Senegal.  Soccer fans who only want to watch a particular series of matches during the World Cup don’t have to continually run down to their TV service provider to make those payments in cash.  This may seems strange to us, but imagine if you could only see certain televised Olympic sports by going to your cable providers office!  And most of the country is not banked—which means dealing in cash.  Whether it is paying a bill or paying a friend, this service also means that they don’t have to risk the danger of walking around with a lot of cash on payday.

Societe Generale is one of the largest banks in the world and this is a real opportunity to start bringing mobile money to their existing and potential customers.  We look forward to helping them achieve this goal.