Safaricom’s M-PESA Global has been named as finalist in the Global Mobile Awards 2019 (GLOMO Awards). The service, which was launched in November 2018, has been nominated under the Best Mobile Innovation for Commerce category.
Under M-Pesa Global, Safaricom customers are able to send and receive money through M-Pesa. Through Western Union for instance, customers are able to send money bank accounts in some countries and to more than 500,000 Western Union agent locations.
“We launched M-PESA Global as part of our strategy to open up M-PESA to the world. The fact that it has been recognised at a global event that is wildly seen as the ‘Oscars’ of the mobile industry is a reflection of how the service has revolutionised the sector”, said Sitoyo Lopokoiyit, Chief Financial Services Officer, Safaricom.
In 2018, Shupavu 291 which was developed by Eneza Education in collaboration with Safaricom, won in the Best Mobile Invention for Education category.
“The GLOMOs provide a world stage on which to celebrate the most inspirational and innovative developments across our industry, recognising the companies and individuals leading the way in everything from 5G, to emerging markets, to intelligent connectivity. The awards attract a significant level of high-quality entries, so being nominated today is a great achievement” said John Hoffman, CEO, GSMA Ltd in a statement announcing this year’s nominations.
Winners of the awards will be announced during this year’s Mobile World Congress (MWC 19) which takes place on 25th – 28th February in Barcelona, Spain.
Safaricom is the leading telecommunication company in Kenya with over 29.9 million customers and over 100 different products under their portfolio. The company pioneered mobile money through M-Pesa in 2017 which currently has over 21 million active customers and over 162,800 M-PESA Agent outlets countrywide.