A Vodacom shop in Rosebank, Johannesburg. Picture: FINANCIAL MAIL
A Vodacom shop in Rosebank, Johannesburg. Picture: FINANCIAL MAIL

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MOBILE network Vodacom is considering various options for its sluggish cellphone money transfer service M-Pesa.

M-Pesa enables customers — particularly unbanked users — to transfer money from person to person using cellphone and text-messaging technology.

In 2010, Vodacom launched M-Pesa and the company set a target of reaching 10-million local users.

Vodacom then relaunched the service in August 2014 in a bid to spur interest in the product. The M-Pesa relaunch in 2014 involved a simplified registration and Fica (Financial Intelligence Centre Act) process, and the establishment of 8,800 points of presence.

But Vodacom’s 2015 integrated report showed that while 1-million people registered for M-Pesa in SA, only 76,000 people were actively using the service. Vodacom, in its 2015 integrated report, said that "progress has been slower than we’d like" regarding M-Pesa.

"Vodacom conducts regular reviews of its investments and products, including m-pesa SA (MPSA)," Vodacom spokesperson Byron Kennedy said.

"We can confirm that we are currently considering a range of options for MPSA but that no final decisions have been made," Mr Kennedy said.

According to Fin24, Vodacom is exploring options for its M-Pesa business that range from enabling employees to generate new ideas for the service to possibly even shutting it down.

M-Pesa’s struggles in SA are in stark contrast to other African countries such as Kenya where network Safaricom has recorded more than 11-million mobile money users. UK mobile network Vodafone has stakes in both Safaricom and Vodacom.

Moreover, Vodacom’s M-Pesa business in its rest of Africa operations has also performed better than in SA. Last year, Vodacom reported that it had more than 8-million users of M-Pesa across its African operations.

Fin24