Dipo Olowookere
The spotlights were on Airtel Uganda and its technology partner, Comviva, recently at the 2020 Digital Wallet Innovation Award, where they were announced as winners of their respective category.
While Airtel Uganda was the overall winner of the Market Adoption, Airtel Uganda and Comviva were declared the grand winner out of the five winning firms presented for the first time this year by Aite Group.
The recognition by Aite Group, a global research and advisory firm, was presented virtually during the Mobile Payment Conference held on Monday.
Aite Group annually recognizes innovation by digital wallet providers that are changing the way commerce is done. The winners are selected by a global panel of independent experts on digital payments and wallets.
“Digital wallets are becoming the engines of commerce, and with the COVID–19 pandemic, their importance to consumers is great than ever”, said Thad Peterson, senior analyst at Aite Group.
“And as can be seen with Airtel Money Uganda, they have the power to move complete economies,” Peterson added.
Commenting about the award, Airtel Uganda Chief Commercial Officer, Mr Amit Kapur said, “This award recognises our effort towards making Airtel Money a world-class service, and Airtel Money’s revolutionary impact on increasing financial inclusion, digitizing payments and creating a digital cash-lite Uganda. The award has come at a right time when Airtel Africa is celebrating its 10th Anniversary.”
“At Airtel, our aim is to leverage the transformative power of mobile money to enrich the lives of people. Hence, in the last few years, we have evolved Airtel Money by introducing new services, expanding the Airtel Money agent network and adding new partners,” further added Amit.
Airtel partners with multiple utility providers, billers, merchants, businesses, international remittance partners, Commercial banks and the Government of Uganda to facilitate payments and collections for these partners and facilitate the public make payments to these services.
The rich portfolio of services is complemented by an expansive Airtel money distribution network of over 102,000 active Airtel money agent and over 850 active and dedicated Airtel Money Branches spread across Uganda, providing last-mile services like cash deposit, withdrawals and customer support services to Airtel Money customers. Airtel Money Uganda is powered by Comviva’s mobiquity® Money platform.
“We are glad to be the technology partner of Airtel Money in Uganda and are happy to support Airtel’s mission of providing swift, seamless and secure digital financial services that are helping people to live better lives. This award validates our ability to bring innovative fintech services to the forefront in emerging economies. We are happy that mobiquity® Money is leading the way in digitizing economies and impacting lives of millions of people globally,” said Suresh Khosla, Head of Airtel Business at Comviva.
