money

- South Korea’s KT Corp has announced that it has reached a preliminary agreement to buy a 20% stake in Telkom South Africa, at a reduced price of around USD427 million.

MTN Mobile Money subscribers who use Starbow can now purchase their air tickets through MTN Mobile Money. MTN announced the new addition during an interaction with News Editors and senior journalists in the Volta Region.

The forum was to brief journalists on new trends in telecommunications, the drive towards convergence, MTN’s CSR initiatives, as well as the company’s network coverage expansion projects currently underway in the region.

MCash's mobile financial service has launched in Uganda in partnership with Housing Finance Bank (HFB).

M-Cash is under the Bank’s umbrella in Uganda to bring new service delivery channels to all Ugandan citizen. MCash’s inherent independence from mobile network operators offers an attractive business model that offer to Housing Finance Bank various alternative channels to bank the unbanked and service efficiently the under-served.

The Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) has teamed up with Orient Bank and Warid Telecom to come up with an efficient tax payment method where taxpayers can have the comfort of clearing their taxes through the mobile money platform.

- An ongoing programme to upgrade its mobile network to offer 3G services has seen MobiNil, Egypt’s largest cellco by subscribers, slump to a net loss in the first three months of 2012. In releasing its financial results for the three months ended 31 March 2012 the Egyptian operator posted a net loss of EGP74 million (USD12.2 million) for the quarter, compared to a net profit of EGP23 million in the corresponding period of 2011.

CEO of money transfer service speak exclusively to African Business Review on why his company means more to him than just making money.The story behind international money transfer Dahabshiil truly is one of rags to riches.

The company, now one of the largest money transfer businesses in the Horn of Africa, was started by African entrepreneur Mohamed Duale. In the 1970s, he fled Somalia with his family when civil war broke out in 1988 to England. With very limited resources, Duale set about rebuilding his business in his mission to serve African communities.

- Onatel, Burkina Faso’s incumbent fixed line telecoms operator, has announced it generated net profit of XAF4.623 billion (USD9.1 million) in the first quarter of 2012, an increase of 219% compared to the XAF1.450 billion reported in the year-ago quarter.

Zimbabwe telco Econet Wireless has reported a 24% increase in full-year revenues in its financial year to end-February 2012. Sales rose to USD611.1 million, up from USD493.5 million the previous year, driven by a 16% increase in subscriber numbers to 6.41 million. Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) climbed from USD242.7 million to USD290.9 million, while net profits were up 18% at USD165.7 million.

MasterCard has partnered with local mobile-centric financial services company Oltio to bring MasterCard Mobile to the South African market, expanding the platform for online shopping in the country.

MasterCard Mobile lets MasterCard and Maestro cardholders make online purchases using their mobile phones. Consumers can use the platform to make secure online purchases with their PIN-based debit, cheque or credit cards by linking these to their mobile phones.