The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Xoom, PayPal’s money transfer service, has announced that its customers in the US, UK, Canada and Europe can now send secure and convenient money transfers directly to mobile wallets in key markets across Africa with a focus on the under banked segment.
The new markets covered include; Uganda, Cameroon, Ghana, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe—with plans to include more markets in 2021.
“Sending money to Africa through traditional channels has always been expensive. We wanted to help bring down the cost and speed up the process to boost financial inclusion,” said Julian King, Vice President and General Manager, Xoom.
“There is nowhere else in the world that moves more money on mobile phones than Sub-Saharan Africa.
While there are only five bank branches per 100,000 people as of 2019, there are 1.04 billion registered mobile money accounts in Sub-Saharan Africa.”
Available data indicates that the cost of sending money through traditional channels to Africa is one of the most expensive in the world, with an average cost of 9.3 percent.
For instance, the cost of sending $200 to the Sub-Saharan African region averaged 9 percent in 2018 and in the southern African sub region, the average cost was 18.7 percent, almost three times higher than the global average according to the World Bank.
Xoom executives says they will bring down the cost costs of sending money to mobile wallets in select African markets ranging from 2-4 percent of the transactions.
Customers, however, will need to download Xoom’s mobile app on Android and iOS or go to Xoom.com and set up an account easily or log-in with using PayPal credentials.
