New startup makes mobile money services in Africa interoperable

DusuPay is an African mobile payment infrastructure that integrates services across Africa to allow businesses operating there to collect payments more simply.

In Africa, over 80% of the adult population prefer to pay with their mobile rather than bank card. Over the years, we’ve written about a number of projects operating in the rapidly expanding area that is mobile money services. In Kenya, this app integrates short term loans for entrepreneurs with mobile banking. And in Tanzania, this clinic uses mobile payments to facilitate treatment. Now, DusuPay is hoping to integrate what has become quite a disparate infrastructure, broken down by telecom provider and country boundaries.

In Africa, each country has between three and five different mobile money services. Someone using Airtel for example, can’t accept mobile money payments from MTN. Similarly, users in Uganda, can’t accept mobile payments from Kenya. DusuPay changes all that, allowing global businesses to make and accept mobile payments across Africa, crucial for businesses operating in one or more of the continent’s countries, which collectively now constitute a USD 1.9 trillion dollar market. Funded by private investors, the startup aims to remove the bottlenecks faced by firms by integrating various countries and operators. Access to the service is through a subscription fee which costs from GBP 4.99 but is only charged to the merchant. The company has also integrated other modes of payment, including bitcoin, credit and debit cards and PayPal. Co-founder Ntende Kenneth explains, “Mobile money has surpassed banking as a mode of payment in most African countries. Considering this is the way people have opted to pay, it is making more and more sense for international businesses to tap into it, rather than forcing them to pay using cards.”

Launched in Uganda, the startup is now active across Africa, in Tanzania, Cameroon, Kenya and Ghana amongst others. It has even expanded to the Philippines and India. With plans to scale to all African countries and other developing markets, could DusuPay be adopted by developed markets too?