WorldRemit, Zazoo team up for instant money transfers to SA

Global remittance service has announced a partnership with mobile payments company Zazoo which it says will better enable instant money transfers to South Africa.

WorldRemit’s online service lets people send money to friends and family using a smartphone, tablet, or computer, anytime, anywhere. Headquartered in London, WorldRemit is currently available for people in 52 countries, sending to more than 125 destinations around the world.

“For many South Africans, sending money home used to come at a substantial cost – excessive fees, queuing in line at high-street transfer agents, and waiting for days for a transfer to arrive,” says Richard Meseko, who is responsible for expanding WorldRemit’s business across Africa and serves as the company’s Country Director in Canada. “WorldRemit was built to modernise the payments industry and offer the best possible experience to anyone sending money home. Today, WorldRemit’s partnership with ZAZOO means we can bring instant, low-cost bank deposits to our service in South Africa.”

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ZAZOO will enable WorldRemit to offer this service in South Africa by using technology developed and customized by its Enterprise Payments business unit, FIHRST. According to a press release sent to Memeburn by Zazoo, FIHRST’s technology “streamlines the relationship between the payer and payee, and ensures data integrity using sophisticated encryption routines with secure dedicated lines to South Africa’s major banks”.

“At ZAZOO, we are always ready to engage with new partners who share our vision for using technology to make payments quicker, safer and more accessible and reliable,” says Philip Belamant, Managing Director of ZAZOO. “We rose to the challenge, adapting FIHRST’s technology to meet our client’s needs, in turn making it easier for WorldRemit’s customers to receive money, that is often the lifeblood of families living far away from the main breadwinner,” he concluded.

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South Africans receive inbound remittances of more than US$1-billion per year. According to the Remittance Prices Worldwide report published by the World Bank, the average global price of remittances is 7.68% of the transaction value, with Sub-Saharan Africa listed as the most expensive region in the world at 9.74%. These numbers reiterate the opportunity that exists in South Africa to attract customers through the introduction of highly efficient financial technology, namely lowering cost and increasing accessibility.

According to the press release, unbanked recipients also have the option of opening an EasyPay Everywhere account — a pay per transaction low cost bank account recently launched by Net1. Furthermore, it says, should a recipient select to receive their funds into their EasyPay Everywhere account — ZAZOO will enable that recipient to make use of its mobile virtual card technology to create a virtual MasterCard to spend digitally for any online purchase in South Africa.