•The service was officially launched in January 2019 and has been gaining popularity in Kenya where Safaricom has over 23.6 million M-PESA users.
•Fuliza is empowered by the Huawei Mobile Money Finance Overdraft Platform which allows design, development and deployment of innovate finance products.
Image: COURTESY
Safaricom and Huawei have jointly received the prestigious Most Innovative Service “the Business of Tomorrow” award at AfricaCom 2019 in Cape Town.
AfricaCom is Africa’s biggest telecoms and technology event which takes place annually in Cape Town, South Africa.
The two companies scooped the awards for offering the new revolutionary mobile money overdraft service, known as “Fuliza”.
The service enables users with insufficient funds in their M-Pesa accounts to borrow money to complete their M-Pesa transactions.
The service was officially launched in January 2019 and has been gaining popularity in Kenya where Safaricom has over 23.6 million M-Pesa users.
Kenyans transacted more than Sh6.2 billion in Fuliza's first month after its launch.
Safaricom CEO Michael Joseph said M-Pesa continues to play a leading role in deepening financial inclusion in the country.
"Fuliza enriches our mobile financial services portfolio further fulfilling our promise to always provide our customers with relevant products and services that meet them at their point of need," Joseph said.
He expressed gratitude in partnering with Huawei in bringing this commitment to life.”
Fuliza is empowered by the Huawei Mobile Money Finance Overdraft Platform which allows design, development and deployment of innovating finance products.
This platform was created to enable credit overdraft facilities in multiple payment scenarios in a highly secure and stable way.
Over the years, Huawei has been working with Safaricom in improving its mobile financial services and developing new products, especially for loans and savings which can bring many benefits to individuals but also to SMEs to help grow their businesses.
Director of Marketing and Solution Sales for Huawei Southern Africa Region, David Chen, said financial services security and stability are the DNA of all Huawei's ICT solution.
"We have focused on building a world-class application programming interface (API) to enable the local ICT ecosystem to tap into M-Pesa to serve the needs of our client for business success and nurture the digital economy from a macro perspective,” Chen said.
Huawei also showcased its end-to-end 5G ability, facilitating the industry’s digital transformation through innovative tools, platforms and solutions and exploring new opportunities that are emerging for the industry from these new technologies.
On its end, Safaricom has more than 34.5 million customers, providing over 200,000 touch points for its customers.
The telecommunication giant pioneered commercial mobile money transfer globally through M-Pesa, the most successful service of its kind anywhere in the world.
Launched in March 2007, M-Pesa now has more than 23.6 million active customers and over 176,000 M-Pesa agent outlets countrywide.
Safaricom was listed on the Nairobi Securities Exchange and with annual revenues in excess of Sh200 billion.
Safaricom invested Sh38 billion in infrastructure this year, providing over 93 per cent of Kenya’s population with 4G and 3G coverage and providing 2G coverage to 96 per cent of Kenyans.
Safaricom has also harnessed its proprietary fibre infrastructure to build a dedicated enterprise business, which provides managed I.T. services to clients in the East African region.
Safaricom pioneered commercial mobile money transfer globally through M-Pesa, the most successful service of its kind anywhere in the world.