"Etisalat is expanding the footprint of Flous, a world class and innovative Mobile Commerce service designed to serve unbanked populations, to Niger," said Khalifa Al Shamsi, chief digital services officer at Etisalat Group. "By bringing banking to the unbanked, we are fulfilling our vision to give communities in our operating countries the means to grow and develop."
Flous, which means "money", will spread the benefits of finance in Niger. With Flous, (better known in Niger as Flooz) customers will use their mobile phones as digital wallets to pay goods and services; transfer money with friends and family; withdraw and deposit cash; top up mobile phones and manage bank accounts. The service is offered in partnership with Banque Atlantique Niger.
After signing up, Etisalat and Banque Atlantique will provide customers with virtual bank accounts, enabling them to use their mobile phones as debit cards and manage funds directly from their handsets. The service, which requires a password for each transaction, is designed to give customers security and flexibility, enabling customers to access money 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The service is accessible on any handset from the most basic to the most sophisticated mobile handset.
"Niger is a really promising market with a strong potential for mobile commerce services and Etisalat Moov is committed to bringing our customers the best commercial services the mobile market has to offer," said Mohamad Bader, managing director of Etisalat Moov Niger.
Ango Nana Aissa, CEO of Banque Atlantique Niger, said: "The partnership with Etisalat Moov to develop Mobile Commerce services is a great opportunity to transform the banking sector in Niger. We will provide banking services to all communities in the country and raise their levels of financial participation by redesigning relationship between financial institutions and customers."
Etisalat currently serves 143 million customers in 15 countries throughout the Middle East, Africa and Asia; Flous is already operating in the majority of the operations.
