Zain Signs Deal To Enable Network Expansion

An unconfirmed report from the online journal Trade Finance states that Standard Chartered Bank has signed a telecoms equipment deal with Ghanaian cellco Zain Communications Ghana Limited (formerly WESTEL), backed by Sweden’s credit agency EKN. It is understood the value of the contract is USD77 million and will be used to provide telecoms equipment to support the cellco’s network expansion in the country.

Zain Ghana had approximately 1.375 million mobile users at 30 June 2010 up from 1.293 million at the start of the year, a market share of 8.4%. Its networks covered an estimated 53% of the population.

Bharti Raises USD8.3Billion For Zain Stake

India's Bharti Airtel has announced that it has raised funding totaling USD8.3 billion for its proposed acquisition of the African assets of Kuwaiti telecoms group Zain, according to Bloomberg Business Week.
Bharti will receive USD7.5 billion via loans from a group of banks led by Standard Chartered and Barclays, and the development comes hot on the heels of reports that Bharti's board had approved the planned purchase earlier this week. Exclusive negotiations between Zain and Bharti are scheduled to conclude by 25 March.

NetOne Wants Fresh Loan Terms From Treasury

State-run Zimbabwean cellco NetOne has approached the treasury to renegotiate terms for a USD28 million loan obtained from international financiers at its inception more than a decade ago, reports AllAfrica.com, quoting The Zimbabwe Independent. Reward Kangai, NetOne’s managing director, told the parliamentary portfolio committee on media, information and communication technology that the firm had since 2002 failed to service the debt owed to three lenders, among them the UK-based Standard Chartered Bank.

However, Kangai added that NetOne could level the playing field with its privately-run competitors, Econet Wireless and Telecel Zimbabwe, if the government approved the setting up of an independent procurement committee to replace the current state body which, the MD claimed, often took close to six months to procure supplies for the GSM operator.

Kangai said the company had failed to replace its obsolete billing system following a decision by the existing procurement board to cancel bids by prospective suppliers, and as a result subscribers on monthly contracts were shifting to the pre-paid platform, EasyCall.

Meanwhile, the government has received USD53 million in financing from China for expanding NetOne’s network and customer base. The company had been targeting ‘five million subscribers by March this year’; it was reported this month to have less than 500,000 subscribers.

In a separate development, the incoming managing director of Telecel Zimbabwe, Aimable Mpore, revealed to the same parliamentary committee that the Orascom Telecom subsidiary would launch 3G mobile services by June this year after it was granted necessary wireless frequencies by the Post and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (POTRAZ) last week.

Zain Expands Zap Service in East Africa

Zain has announced an upgrade to its mobile banking service, Zap to enable customers to receive money from any bank account around the world and send money to any bank in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda.

Dr. Saad Al Barrak, Zain Group's Chief Executive Officer said: "This enhancement of Zap is another world first from Zain. It means that our customers in remote towns and villages as well as those in the cities can receive money from wherever in the world their business colleagues or family and friends are. Ability to send money from the mobile phone to any bank account in East Africa will enable businesses to perform more efficiently."

The service has been used by more than 5 million people since it was launched.

Zain customers can sign-up for free for the new Zap services by completing an application form and handing it over to registered Zain agents in tens of thousands of villages, towns and cities across East Africa. Zain will then provide the customer with a mobile wallet, which will allow them to use their mobile phone in much the same way as a bank account debit card and manage their money through their handset.

Zain and its international and regional banking partners are confident that Zap will increase access to banking services in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda, where formal banking services are largely restricted to urban populations. Eighty per cent of Kenya's and ninety-five per cent of Tanzania's and Uganda's populations do not have currently have access to banking services.

Currently over US$10 million worth of airtime transfers take place in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda each month.

Standard Chartered Bank's Head of Consumer Banking, East Africa, Kariuki Ngari said, "This service will enable families and businesses to access funds from around the world very swiftly and very securely. It has the potential to transform banking in Africa and will help overcome many of the obstacles presented by providing banking services to remote and rural communities who are now able to access global funds swiftly."

Essar In Talks to Invest In Warid Africa Networks

UAE-based group of investors Dhabi Group and India-based Essar Group have agreed to enter into exclusive discussions in relation to an investment by Essar Group into the telecommunications portfolio of Dhabi Group's African assets.

A statement from Essar Telecom Kenya said the transaction will involve an equity infusion into these businesses as growth capital and will be the basis of a partnership to create a significant presence in Africa. Standard Chartered Bank is acting as exclusive financial advisor to the Dhabi Group.

Essar has significant interests in telecommunications services, including mobile telephony in an Indian joint venture with Vodafone, telecom tower infrastructure, telecom retail and IT/telecom enabled services.

The Dhabi group offers telecom services in African countries under the brand name Warid Telecom. The company has recently acquired telecom licences for two more markets--Uganda and Congo. Essar Telecom Kenya has recently launched Kenya's fourth mobile network under the brand Yu and is said to have recently acquired Uganda's sixth telecom licence.

Uganda Telecom & Standard Chartered in Mobile Banking Deal

Customers of Standard Chartered Bank, who subscribe to Uganda Telecom Limited, will now access banking services through their mobile phone handsets.

In this agreement, customers would simply need to register with the bank to have access and thereafter, they would have to press the characters on a mobile phone to get data.

Bank General Manager in charge of Small and Medium Enterprises, Mr Harton Maliki said the bank invested in the new service to enable its customers acquire data quickly and efficiently.

“It is a secure system fordata that is not stored on the Sim card. It is readable and is for downloading by only users,” Mr Maliki said.

The initiative, aimed at increasing access to bank’s services, was announced on Wednesday at the bank’s head offices in Kampala.

“At Standard Chartered, We are continuously developing solutions to respond to the evolving needs of our customers. M-banking - like other recent initiatives from the bank - seeks to enable our customers to do their banking at their convenience anytime, anywhere, any day,” Mr Maliki said.

He said the bank’s M-banking proposition in Uganda provides its customers with a number of services on a unique platform called Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD); a system used by a few banks across the world.

UTL Chief Commercial Officer, Mr Hans Paulsen said the partnership was another way of mobile telephone use penetrating into the world with bank customers now accessing services from their respective places.

Mr Paulsen said the bank service is another way, among the many uses, a mobile phone can be utilised adding that he was optimistic the customers will get the value for their money.
 
“Utl is proud to be part of growth in mobile penetration and this being one of the biggest social phenomena, which will impact and change the way that we trade and pay as well as bringing affordable and convenient access at your fingertips,” Mr Paulsen said.  

MTN Cote d'Ivoire Obtains Finance for Expansion

Citibank has announced the successful closure and signing of a XOF 76.1 billion (US$150 million) financing in favor of MTN Cote d'Ivoire. The bank noted that this is the largest locally raised XOF syndicated term loan facility for an Ivorian corporate borrower.

MTN borrowed the money to finance the capital expenditure requirements of its network rollout and for the consolidation of its existing debt.

The facility, which was launched at XOF 60 billion (US$120 million), has been increased to XOF 76.1 billion (US$150 million) following strong oversubscription from lenders - which makes a change for the current economic climate.

"The successful closure of this loan facility is an indication of the confidence that banks have in our company," said MTN Regional Vice President, Christian De Faria. "It also reflects the confidence that both MTN Cote d'Ivoire and the financial sector have in the Ivorian economy."

"In the past, we had heavily relied on bilateral facilities from individual banks with diverse maturities, terms and conditions," he added. "Now dealing with one single syndicated loan helps us ease the burden of managing several different facilities and further provided the opportunity to redefine our relationship with partner banks."

"The transaction came at a time of significant challenges both in the local and international capital markets," Martin A. Mugambi, Director & Africa Head of Corporate Finance for Citi added, "In this challenging environment, a total of nine local banks were able to participate in this successful transaction which testifies to the strength of the local bank market".

The nine participating institutions are Citibank N.A, Bank of Africa Cote d'Ivoire, Banque Internationale pour l'Afrique de l'Ouest Cote d'Ivoire, Ecobank Cote d'Ivoire, Omnifinance, Societe Generale de Banque de Cote d'Ivoire, Societe Ivoirienne de Banque, Standard Chartered Cote d'Ivoire and United Bank of Africa Cote d'Ivoire.

Zain Kicks Off Money Transfer Service With East Africa Launch

Leading mobile telecommunications provider Zain has announced plans to bring mobile banking to over 100 million people in East Africa with the launch of its new service, Zap.

 

Zap will be initially available in Kenya and Tanzania prior to launch in Uganda. Zap represents the most comprehensive mobile banking service ever launched and will provide millions of people with access to banking for the very first time.

 

Zain is partnering with leading international and regional banks including Citigroup and Standard Chartered to launch Zap, which will allow Zain customers in the three countries to use their mobile phone to:

 

o   Pay bills and pay for goods and services

o   Receive money and send money to friends and family

o   Send and receive money to the bank accounts

o   Withdraw cash

o   Top up their own airtime account or top up someone else's

o   Send airtime to Zain customers in East Africa

o   Manage their bank accounts

 

The Zap service will also be included as part of Zain’s pioneering One Network service, meaning that customers will be able to send airtime to other Zain customers across Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. One Network allows travelling customers to move across geographic borders without roaming surcharges, recharge their mobile phones with locally purchased top up cards and receive calls for free.

 

Dr. Saad Al Barrak, Zain Group’s Chief Executive Officer said: "The launch of Zap represents the latest chapter in our work to push the boundaries of mobile communications. For any market in the world, the combination of services we are providing would be exciting; but when set in an African context, the implications are especially profound.”

He further added “With a potential customer base of over 100 million people in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda, many of whom have never had access to formal financial services, we believe Zap will reshape the future of banking in Africa."

 

Zap will provide customers with increased security and flexibility, reducing the need to carry cash and ensuring payments between friends and family remain secure. A password is needed for each transaction and the service is protected through a state-of-the-art security application. Customers will also benefit from being able to access the service 24 hours a day, seven days a week through their handset, providing the convenience of accessing cash anytime, anywhere.

 

Zain customers can sign-up for free for the new Zap banking and payment services by completing an application form and handing it over to registered Zain agents in tens of thousands of villages, towns and cities across East Africa. Zain will then provide the customer with a mobile wallet, which will allow them to use their mobile phone in much the same way as a bank account debit card and manage their money through their handset. The service is supported on all handsets including ultra low cost handsets (ULCH) which Zain is successfully rolling out across the continent.

 

Zain and its partners are confident that Zap will increase access to banking services in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda, where formal banking services are largely restricted to urban populations. Eighty per cent of Kenya's and ninety-five per cent of Tanzania's and Uganda's populations do not have currently have access to banking services.

Zain, in partnership with Citigroup and Standard Chartered Bank, is ensuring that the services meet all the required in-country banking regulations as stipulated by the central banks for the launch of Zap services. In addition Zain’s banking partners will facilitate payments and settlement processes in accordance with the terms and conditions agreed with the in country banking regulations.

Zain plans to roll-out the enhanced Zap service to the rest of its African and Middle East network following the East Africa launch in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. During a three month trial phase the service was used by several international companies including Coca Cola who used it to pay their dealers in Tanzania.

 

By using Zap millions of customers will be able to pay their electricity bills in Kenya and Tanzania, while Zain also plans to increase the number of services that can be paid for using Zap as part of its aim to transform the use of money in the Africa.

 

As part of its corporate social responsibility programme Zain is funding communication in several remote rural areas which have been designated Millennium Villages across Africa. Using Zap, Zain customers and members of the public will be able to make donations to fund the Millennium Villages project. More than 400,000 people live in the Millennium Villages and the project is investing in them and their communities towards finding a sustainable end to extreme poverty. Members of the public around the world will be able to make donations using Causes on Facebook and Zap to the Millennium Villages. Causes leverages online social networking for offline social change. More than 30 million people around the world use Causes to have an impact on the issues that matter most to them, making it the world’s largest platform for philanthropy and civic engagement.

Stan Chart Introduces E-Banking in Kenya

Standard Chartered has announced the launch of mobile-phone banking (‘mBanking’) in Kenya. Standard Chartered Bank is the first bank in Kenya to introduce ‘mBanking’ on the USSD (Unstructured Supplementary Service Data) platform to the market. This new product will provide Standard Chartered Bank’s customers with access to banking 24 hours a day, 7 days a week – anywhere in the world, at any time- all through their mobile phone.

Richard Etemesi, the bank’s Chief Executive Officer said that the new development is part of the bank’s efforts to provide alternative delivery channels for their customers.

“The launch of this mBanking solution consolidates Standard Chartered’s position as the market leader in the provision of IT-based financial services. This new development compliments our bank’s philosophy of striving to meet customer needs and lifestyles by offering not only products and services but also delivery channels that are in line with current and anticipated future needs", Said Etemesi.

Speaking at the launch, Raheel Ahmed, Regional Head of Consumer Banking, Africa said: “The launch of mobile phone banking in Kenya is a very exciting initiative. This new product will enable us to significantly enhance our service to our customers in Kenya .

"We differentiate our Brand in Africa through our ability to leverage on our international expertise and product capabilities to introduce new, innovative services into our African markets. The launch of our mobile phone banking product in Kenya is yet another example of this competitive advantage, and further evidence that we are continuing to invest heavily in our African franchises.”

Standard Chartered’s mBanking proposition will provide its customers with a number of services on a unique platform called USSD (Unstructured Supplementary Service Data). Standard Chartered Bank is only the fifth bank to use this specific platform globally. USSD is highly user-friendly, and provides an extremely convenient system for customers to access their banking requirements in real time.

USSD is technology unique to GSM. It is a capability built into the GSM standard for support of transmitting information over the signaling channels of the GSM network. USSD provides session-based communication, enabling a variety of applications

Standard Chartered Bank customers will be able to:

• Check their bank balance
• View a mini bank statement for their last 3 transactions
• Change their PIN, anytime and anywhere
• Request Bank Statements
• Transfer of Funds in-between personal accounts and nominated accounts
• Pay utility bills – Pay your Power/ Water /Satellite TV
• Enquire on FX rates
• Top-up their mobile phone balance
• Request a cheque book

Customers with ‘international roaming’ enabled on their mobile phones will be able to complete all the above transactions from wherever they are, anywhere in the world.

The launch of mBanking in Kenya is the latest in a list of ‘alternative banking channels’ introduced by Standard Chartered Bank in Africa throughout 2008. ‘Alternative banking channels’ are innovative products and services such as ATMs, Internet Banking and e-statements, which provide customers with greater flexibility in their banking requirements, enabling them to sort their finances at their own convenience, in their own time, in the knowledge their finances are completely secure.

Kenya: Orange Puts Money Transfer Service on Hold as Zain Clashes With central bank

Telkom Kenya and mobile phone service provider Orange are putting on hold plans to introduce a money transfer service, Kenya's Daily Nation reports.

This may have been occasioned by the stand off between the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) and a commercial bank involved in the Zain Kenya money banking service which is sending out confusing signals to the market.

Zain Kenya had initially hoped to launch its money transfer service known as zap this month but is yet to get prerequisite approval. 

Zain and Standard Chartered Bank were due to meet the CBK yesterday with the hope of striking a deal.

Orange is the mobile brand of Telkom Kenya.

Orange head of marketing and strategy Jean-Michel Chanut said they were exercising caution with the plan. 

“We will certainly comply with the market trends of providing money transfer services but currently, that direction is confusing,” said Mr Chanut. 

“We all know what is going on at the moment with another player’s proposals for the same,” he added.

“We are exercising caution at the moment, we know our subscribers would want us to bring the service but not just now,” he said.

He spoke on Thursday during the launch of ring back tone service on Orange mobile that allows callers to the network to listen to downloaded music instead of the regular ringing tones. 

Telkom Kenya just before its commercial launch last September had indicated that introduction of a money transfer service was one of the directions it would take for value addition to subscribers. 

According to information it gave out then, the firm was to launch this by the end of this month.

Zain Kenya has been having a war of words with the Central Bank of Kenya over a delay in approving a similar service that they intend to launch, not only in Kenya, but in the East Africa region as well. "We will certainly comply with the market trends of providing money transfer services, but currently that direction is confusing," said Chanut

Zain together with Standard Chartered Bank was supposed to meet the CBK on 28 January hoping to reach a deal on its licence. Safaricom's M-Pesa money transfer service, which was launched in March 2007 and has dominated the market, caused an uproar from players in the banking sector, as it specifically targeted people who had no access to formal financial services.

The bankers and even some government officials have called for the regulation of M-Pesa and other subsequent services. Chanut also revealed that the company is nearing 500,000 active subscribers on the Orange mobile network.

The company's GSM network is already in 21 major towns across the country, barely four months after the launch, and plans are underway to expand into more areas using the Orange Fixed Plus and Telkom Fixed services.