Vodacom to Offer Africa’s First Super-App Alongside Alibaba
- Africa’s largest wireless carrier to add e-commerce, banking
- Vodacom sees financial tech as key to growing revenue, profit
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Vodacom Group Ltd. has developed Africa’s first super-app with help from China’s Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., allowing subscribers a broad range of services including taking out loans, shopping online and making standard mobile payments.
The app, called VodaPay, will be available to South African customers in coming weeks, and will help Vodacom expand financial and e-commerce services in its home market in the absence of new high-speed broadband spectrum. The app is comparable to Tencent Holding Ltd.’s WeChat, used by more than a billion people, Chief Executive Officer Shameel Joosub said in an interview.
“The world is moving toward e-commerce, and while leveraging off what we already have we also need to grow that side,” he said.