Nigeria, other Africans missing as W/Union digital service goes live in 40 countries
Upon the volume of outlets and capital flights it had been recording in Nigeria and other African nations, leading international money transfer group, Western Union has made its digital services live in 40 developing countries excluding African nations.
Business Hilights recalls that the company’s over 75 per cent cross-border person-to-person (P2P) transfers are made in Africa and Nigeria in particular.
Though no reason was advanced for the omission, analysts say it was the height of negligence to, Africa, a continent where it makes it highest yearly profits.
The global payments company had announced on Wednesday May 10, 2017, that it has further strengthened its global digital money transfer footprint, with the activation of its 40th transactional website, now providing full digital access for cross-border P2P money transfer services across major developed nations including the US, Canada and major parts of Europe.
Other nations in the deal include Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong and the United Arab Emirates.
African analysts were more aggrieved when Western Union went ahead to note that it has plans to continue to expand its digital presence across Asia Pacific, the Middle East and Latin America and the Caribbean in the next phase of its online expansion, augmenting the company’s retail Agent footprint in more than 200 countries and territories.
The group said in a statement that digital-initiated money transfer remains a high growth area and is expected to be the major driver of overall market growth in the coming years.
The statement said in parts: “In the first quarter of 2017, more than 60 per cent of Western Union transactions were initiated on a mobile device. This digital ramp-up follows the recent launches of Apple Pay as a funding method for digital users in the US and Western Union’s money transfer bot for Messenger, which enables users in the US to make international money transfers without leaving the Messenger app”.
Whereas it raked in about $340 million in money transfer revenue in 2016, President of Western Union Global Money Transfer, Odilon Almeida said, “The continuous advancement of our digital innovation over the past several years allows us to stay ahead of the needs of the modern money mover, and we are serving them across a multitude of currencies, languages and borders.”
