Telecommunications group MTN has registered one-million Mobile Money (MoMo) users in South Africa since its launch on February 1.

The mobile financial service’s significant subscription increase, with the one-millionth customer registered on June 19, indicates growing demand for fast and efficient ways to store, send and spend money.

“MTN saw an increase in MoMo registrations and use since the nationwide lockdown started in late March, specifically in peer-to-peer remittances, with people sending money to family and friends,” says MTN South Africa mobile financial services chief officer Felix Kamenga.

Demand for value-added functionalities, including prepaid electricity purchases and the renewal of driver’s licence discs, also experienced considerable uptake.

“We have facilitated more than 600 car licence renewals since the service reopened under revised lockdown Level 3 regulations at the beginning of June, and we expect this to remain a key driver of growth as more people start driving again and go back to work.”

In line with this growth, MTN has launched a range of new features to enhance its MoMo offerings.

These include a rewards mechanism for those referring a friend, MoMo Pay for ecommerce, cashback on airtime purchases and seamless access to food vouchers.

The new ‘Refer a Friend’ feature allows for a MoMo user to receive a one-off credit of R10 when the friend that has been referred goes on to register and becomes a MoMo user, with a further percentage of the commission awarded if the referred friend buys airtime, explains Kamenga.

Cashback rewards will be provided on airtime purchases, while food vouchers from a list of accredited partners, including Food Lovers Market, Makro, Pick n Pay, Shoprite Checkers, Boxer, Clicks, Dis-Chem, Usave and 3 Star, can be sent using MoMo.

“This is a significant enhancement, as users will have access to vouchers on a single platform and will, for instance, be able to easily send a grocery voucher to someone in need, [instead] of cash,” he continues.

With demand for ecommerce growing rapidly, MTN has agreements with major partners to accept MoMo as a payment method on more than 4 000 ecommerce websites.

In addition, MTN has committed to partner with a range of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that offer products and services through ecommerce channels, with expectations that the overall list of partners will grow to over 30 000 sites over the next several months.

“This will see these ecommerce sites giving people the option of not using their bank cards to shop online, while enabling a range of SMEs to continue operating during these particularly challenging times,” says Kamenga.

“We have successfully adapted our business model to ensure we can expand our reach and remain on track for exciting future growth. In [the] coming weeks, we will be adding more retail and SME partners to the mobile money solution,” he concludes.