Mxit, the largest mobile social network in Africa, has gone into partnership with First National Bank (FNB) in South Africa to provide more options for its more than 10 million-strong user base to make purchases and interact with contents provided within its ecosystem.
I overheard the CEO of World of Avatar, owners of Mxit, saying that premium SMS isn’t the most ideal means of in-app purchase and selling contents on the mobile store. Could this move to integrate FNB’s eWallet into Mxit be the break Alan Knott-Craig Jr. has been waiting for?
Any user of Mxit Moola can now get a 35% bonus for every rand (South African currency) spent buying a Moola. They could buy Moola credit already using premium SMS. The premium SMS option is an expensive one as the charges and portion that goes to the carriers are normally so large that they prevent Mxit and its partners from providing enough value and competitive pricing to its customers.
FNB is one bank in South Africa that has been at the forefront of using technology as a way to stay ahead of competition. Not too long ago, they rode on the back of their social media following on Facebook and the love of gaming by South Africans to launch a game that rewarded those that participated. This ended in September.
Mxit CEO, Alan Knott-Craig Jr., says the latest partnership gives the social network’s 10 million-strong base another banking service with which to transact. He says Moola is a critical piece of the micropayment puzzle. “As Mxit’s platform strategy matures, there will be more opportunities to interact with applications, games and content, and this will be done using our online currency,” reports ITWeb Africa.
In this case, the FNB/Mxit partnership is going to make it possible for Mxit users who can purchase Moola to purchase the Moola by adding “fnbmoola” as a contact and then link their existing FNB eWallet to Mxit. After this is done, they can then use FNBV Moola+ to buy Mxit Moola and will automatically receive their bonus Moola.
As I mentioned above, once it is possible to get mobile commerce rolling by bypassing the quite expensive premium SMS, Alan Knott-Craig Jr. is saying that they will be able to add more value to their users and partners.
This partnership is coming at the right time. Money can be loaded from any FNB account (except credit card) via cellphone banking, FNB banking app and FNB ATMs.
FNB has been at the forefront of banking innovation in South Africa and in leveraging on Technology. Is this move by FNB and Mxit going to solve the problem of getting a means of payment that eases how commerce is done on the mobile phone? Are the likes of Paga and Easywallet in Nigeria going to partner with mobile commerce stores to offer a similar service too?
[image via Flickr/ whiteafrican]
