Visa To Launch Mobile Money Transfer Service In Kenya - Report

Visa Inc. (V), the U.S. credit card company, is set to launch a cross-border mobile money transfer service in Kenya this year, the Daily Nation newspaper reports Monday.

Visa's country director for East and Central Africa, Victor Ndlovu, said the service will be available to all mobile users irrespective of their network provider, the daily reports. Kenya's existing mobile money transfer services have suffered from slow uptake due to restrictions based on users' network providers, the daily adds.

Visa's regional office in Nairobi wasn't immediately reachable for comment Monday.

The service is in the final pilot testing stages and will be introduced in October, the daily cites Ndlovu as saying.

"Mobile money is very key for us. This is one of our key growth areas," he says.

Subscribers to the service will be able to send money across borders on the company's network, bypassing telecommunications companies, the daily says.

The service will be targeted at people sending remittances to African countries from abroad, which the World Bank estimates total around $40 billion a year, the daily said.

The move will intensify competition in Kenya's mobile money transfer market, which is currently dominated by Safaricom Ltd. (SAF.NR).

Full story: http://www.nation.co.ke/business/news/Visa+to+start+mobile+money+transfer+/-/1006/1330780/-/r7683rz/-/index.html

-By George Mwangi, contributing to Dow Jones Newswires; [phone]; [e-mail]