KAMPALA, Uganda — PawaPay, a mobile money payment provider, has expanded its partnership with Airtel Money Africa to launch an inbound remittance service in seven African markets, including Uganda. This new service will enable international money transfer operators to send funds directly to over 161 million Airtel Money customers across the region.
The new remittance service builds on a five-year collaboration between the two companies on domestic mobile money operations. The pawaPay platform will now support the backend infrastructure for international transfers in Uganda, Rwanda, Zambia, Malawi, Gabon, Congo Brazzaville, and Tanzania.
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Nikolai Barnwell, CEO of pawaPay, highlighted the strategic importance of the service, stating, “Our mission is to simplify payments for businesses in Africa, and remittances are pivotal.” He added that the deepened relationship with Airtel Money will allow money transfer operators to use pawaPay’s robust infrastructure to deliver funds.
The partnership aims to streamline cross-border payments, reducing complexity for remittance providers while accelerating Africa’s digital financial transformation. Remittances are a critical financial lifeline for millions of families in Africa, and this initiative is expected to improve service delivery to end-users with real-time mobile wallet transactions.
Following this initial deployment, pawaPay has indicated plans to extend the remittance capability to additional Airtel Money territories.
Ian Ferrao, CEO of Airtel Money Africa, expressed satisfaction with the expanded collaboration, saying, “Their proven reliability and commitment to African consumers make them an ideal partner.”
