MTN Zambia Mobile Money and Zambia National Commercial Bank (Zanaco) PLC partner to launch school fees payment system

MTN Mobile Money has partnered with Zanaco Bill Muster to launch a service that will enable customer to conveniently pay school fees, and is aimed at growing financial inclusion and bringing banking services to the unbanked.

Speaking during the launch, Ministry of General Education Director Standards and Curriculum, Dr. Sunday Mwape, pointed out that such partnerships have made life easier for thousands of people who perform transactions using the Bill Muster and MTN Mobile Money to pay for various services, especially education.

“The Ministry of Education wishes to commend MTN Mobile Money and ZANACO for this initiative aimed at bridging the financial service divide. MTN Zambia’s large subscriber base, comprehensive distribution and innovative digital products will help drive mobile financial inclusion coupled with ZANACO’s 69 branches in 10 provinces across the country. It is the Ministry of General Education’s responsibility to ensure that as many people as possible not only the urbanised population have access to financial services and this forms a core part of our 2020 National Financial Inclusion Strategy,”he said.

Dr. Mwape said that ‘the collaboration between MTN Mobile Money and ZANACO will go a long way in supplementing government’s efforts in making strides towards attaining the 2022 National Financial Inclusion Strategy with the vision to achieve universal access to the usage of a broad range of quality and affordable financial services. “Through the national financial inclusion strategy, the government has set a target to increase the financial inclusion from the current 59 percent that was recorded in 2015 to 80 percent by 2022.’

From left to right: Ministry of General Education Director, Standards and Curriculum, Dr Sunday Mwape, ZANACO Chief Commercial Officer, Mr Lishala Situmbeko, MTN Mobile Money Financial Services, and General Manager Mr Edmund Barwuah during the MTN Mobile Money and ZANACO bill muster launch for school fees payment.

MTN Mobile Money Financial Services, General Manager, Mr Edmund Barwuah noted that partnerships between banks and MTN mobile money operators were fundamental in the mobile money ecosystem, hence his organisation’s partnership with ZANACO.

“We currently serve more than 1.1 million customers on our Mobile Money Platform, making MTN Mobile Money the largest platform in the country. We consider taking financial services to the unbanked a huge priority that demands constant innovation and this forms the basis for our partnership with ZANACO.”

And ZANACO Chief Commercial Officer, Mr Lishala Situmbeko, said:

“Mobile Money is the leading payment platform for the digital economy in many countries around the world and the partnership is consistent with ZANACO’s 2020 vision to become Zambia’s top transactional bank.”

Mr. Situmbeko said that ‘through such partnerships, customers who want to use Zanaco Bill Muster services can now conveniently do so on MTN’s Mobile Money services. This means that customers who are constrained for time do not have to visit Zanaco branches to make their deposits as they can make their deposits on MTN’s widespread Mobile Money services across the country.’