WorldRemit introduces mobile money transfers to Burundi

WorldRemit, the online money transfer service, is launching instant mobile money transfers to Burundi. People from 50 countries in the world can now send money directly to EcoCash mobile wallets in Burundi.

Burundians can now send money to their friends and family, with an instant message.

“The 350 000 Burundians who live abroad can make instant, low-cost money transfers direct to the mobiles of their friends and family in Burundi,” WorldRemit said in a press release sent to Memeburn.

WorldRemit already has a presence in Africa, and is available in 50 countries around the world and 120+ destinations and enables around 300 000 transactions per month. Earlier this year, the company completed a funding round and has raised US$100-million to drive its global growth.

Read more: South Africa’s mobile money adoption rates are about to explode

Money transfers from outside Africa into the continent have not always been seamless, often requiring long hours of queuing and a pile of document to prove that the money was indeed sent for you. Now, with only an instant message, one receives their money.

“Our partnership with EcoCash means that people will no longer have to send remittances through illegal channels or pay high fees for cash to be picked up at inconvenient agent locations” says Alix Murphy, senior mobile analyst at WorldRemit.

WorldRemit’s partner, EcoCash is available to the two million feature phone and smartphone connections in Burundi. When Econet Wireless launched EcoCash in 2010, it claimed that it had over 300,000 clients in Burundi and 8,000 are already using Ecocash. That is a huge number that presents great opportunity to exploit.

WorldRemit claims that “only 7% of the adult population of Burundi population banked, there are now more Mobile Money accounts than bank accounts in Burundi”

Murphy comments that “About 93% of adults in Burundi are unbanked, severely limiting financial security, job prospects and economic freedom”

This launch is important in that it is going enable an unbanked population to send and receive money effortlessly.