Vodafone announced the official launch of its M-Pesa m-payment service by its Romanian division Vodafone Romania. The service, first launched in Africa and now coming to Europe, will offer mobile money transfer and payment services to approximately 7 million Romanians who transact mainly in cash. The service also offers banked customers the convenience of being able to access and transfer money via the mobile phone. M-Pesa is based on simple text messaging technology and operates over any of Vodafone Romania's mobile network connections, including 4G services which launched in 2012. Romanian M-Pesa customers will be able to transfer between RON 1 (EUR 0.22) and RON 30,000 (EUR 6.715) per day.
Vodafone M-Pesa can be activated at any one of around 300 Vodafone Romania stores and participating retail outlets as well as through authorised agents. The service will be accessible to approximately 6 million people in both rural and urban areas. It will be extended to other parts of the country, comprising a total of 2,000 retail and distribution points of presence by the end of 2014.
M-Pesa also will allow Vodafone Romania's customers to top up pre-pay airtime on a mobile device, pay utility bills, make a deposit and withdraw cash from participating agents, and purchase goods such as flowers, a newspaper and a coffee.
