Airtel Mobile Money growing in Popularity

Yusuf Turay is an Airtel money agent stationed at Eastern Police. Every morning he comes to the spot with the Airtel tricycle to provide mobile money services to the public. He also addresses customers that have problems with their Sim Cards. Hundreds come each week to his tricycle outlet that could be described as ‘a bank on wheels.’ The tricycles were provided by the company to facilitate the sending and receipt of money from their loved ones in different areas of the country.

“I am here for the rest of the day and many of my customers say they send money through this method than going to the banks,” Yusuf said.
Mobile money transfer is now the fastest and probably the safest means to send money to friends and relatives around the country. During the Ebola outbreak, health workers in remote communities were paid their weekly allowances via mobile money. The transaction can take place any time of the day and anywhere.

“You can contact us at any time of the day to send or receive money.  If you want the person to receive Le50,000, you need to send Le52,000,” he said.

The growing popularity of mobile money is the ease and flexibility of transaction.
Airtel mobile subscribers can dial a special number to determine the location of an agent to either send or receive money. Yusuf has worked for Airtel for almost 8 months, moving around with a rider.
About 11 percent of the people in Sierra Leone have bank accounts out of a population of 7.1 million. But over 3 million people have mobile handsets. Sierra Leone has about 4 licensed mobile operators that together cover over 80 percent of the country. The mobile spread and the facts gathered about the operations of Splash and Airtel create a situation that the 13 commercial bank could exploit to reach the unbanked.

Globally, more than 2.5 billion adults do not have a formal bank account. Most of them reside in developing countries. In Africa only 20 percent of families have bank account. Mobile money is therefore a convenient means to transact money.