Leader
in mobile messaging and transaction service provision, Clickatell, has been
honored with a Kalahari Mobile Money award for its contribution to the digital
financial services sector through Virtual Top Up (VTU) reports ITRealms.
The
award celebrates creativity, commitment and excellence in the mobile financial
services across Africa while honouring best practice in the sector, which
covers mobile network operators, card services, financial institutions, and
independent providers in the ecosystem in Africa and beyond.
The
Clickatell VTU product is the underlying technology powering successful airtime
top-up services such as GTBank's 737 1-Click Top-Up and Access Bank’s 901
Top-Up services in Nigeria. The product has enabled these banks to offer their
customers a far more convenient way of purchasing airtime than purchasing
traditional printed airtime vouchers. Using this USSD based service, banking
customers can purchase virtual airtime via their mobile phones simply by
dialing *737*AMOUNT#, in the case of GTBank.
Reiterating
the reason for the honour, Mobile Money Africa Principal Emmanuel Okogwale
noted that Clickatell has successfully collaborated with several banks in
Nigeria to offer VTU as a service, and that this has encouraged the
country’s push for a cashless society. The service has also been adopted by
Sterling Bank, Eco Bank and StanbicIBTC among others.
Clickatell
West Africa Director Samson Isa said the award has shown that the market
recognized the company’s efforts at providing cutting-edge technology to make
consumers’ lives more convenient. “VTU is a mobile prepaid technology product
that has revolutionized the telecoms distribution space because of its ease of
usage, security and availability.”
Notable
among the banks that have benefitted from the deployment of VTU is GTBank,
which through Clickatell now offers USSD, Internet Banking, Mobile Banking andMobile Money services on the platform.
Prepaid
airtime is a critical success factor to mobile banking and mobile money’s
success in Nigeria. VTU is a convenient service for bank customers who
wish to purchase airtime anytime for themselves or others.
According
to Isa, commercial banks, in collaboration with Clickatell, offer a broader
array of VTU prepaid products including data. By providing MNOs access to bank
customers, Clickatell operates as the bridge between the banks and the
consumers, enabling them to enjoy banking services in a secure way.
Recipients
of the Kalahari Awards are chosen by an independent panel of expert judges
based on a number of criteria, include geographic market penetration, based on
evidence of commercial campaigns, regulatory compliance, and where necessary,
cross sector partnerships, active deployments and future growth potential.
+Remmy Nweke (ITRealms)
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