First Bank partners WorldRemit on digital money transfers to Nigeria

Leading digital money transfer service WorldRemit has joined forces with First Bank of Nigeria Limited (First Bank) for instant money transfers to all First Bank accounts in Nigeria.

The new strategic partnership considerably expands WorldRemit’s footprint in the country and allows its customers in over 50 countries to send money to First Bank accounts directly from their phones. The deal supports WorldRemit’s plan to serve 10 million customers connected to emerging markets by 2020.

First Bank is collaborating with WorldRemit to drive convenience and ease of banking for its customers as well as provide the much-needed push for financial inclusion initiatives. Established since 1894 and with footprint in 6 African countries and a full-fledged branch in London, First Bank has over 14 million customer accounts and more than 750 business locations providing a comprehensive range of retail and corporate financial services across these markets.

With a diaspora of over 15 million people living in countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom and Germany, remittances play an increasingly important role in Nigeria’s economy. The World Bank estimates that in 2017 alone Nigeria received over $22 billion in remittances, making it the largest recipient in Africa.

Sub-saharan Africa still remains the most expensive region to send remittances to, with an average cost of 9.4 percent for sending $200, according to the World Bank.

Andrew Stewart, Regional Head of Middle East & Africa at WorldRemit, said: “We are delighted to be partnering with First Bank, one of Nigeria’s leading banks, to give its 14 million customers access to our best in class money transfer experience.

Nigeria remains our largest and fastest growing market in Africa, and WorldRemit’s second biggest market globally. This is a key partnership in the country that will further support Nigeria’s transition from offline remittances to online, safer, faster and lower-cost money transfer methods.”

Group Head of Products and Marketing Support at First Bank, Abiodun Famuyiwa added:

“The Bank is excited to be working WorldRemit in delivering swift digital remittances to its customers in Nigeria. This partnership is one of the numerous ways the Bank would continue to put customers first by leading the industry in the use of technology to provide safe, convenient and fast banking solutions”.

Last year WorldRemit became Arsenal FC’s first-ever online money transfer partner in a global sponsorship deal. WorldRemit customers complete 1 million transfers every month from 50 countries to over 145 destinations. More than half of its transfers go to Africa.

VueTel launches in USA

…Italian Tlc group to connect the USA to Africa

VueTel, specialized in international telecommunications services, can now provide high quality and secure voices and data services, thanks to the reliable and flexible infrastructural network of NOC, Pop and hub in New Yok, London, Paris, and more than 11 African countries and 350 million internet users.

The technology infrastructure is set up to offer international Internet Transit Services (IP Transit), International dedicated lines (IPLC), devoted Ethernet circuits (EthLink) and virtual private networks (IP VPN) in addition to international voice transit services.

The USA VueTel headquarter is located in Holmdel, New Jersey, in the refurbished building that historically housed the Bell Labs, while the technology infrastructure is located in New York, in the prestigious 60 Hudson Street venue.

"With the new AfCFTA agreement, the intra African market can grow up to 52 per cent before 2022 and open a market of 1.2 billion people and a 3,4 billion dollar gross domestic product. Our focus is now to provide large companies and corporations in the USA with dedicated data services to connect them to this great opportunity”, says Vice President of VueTel USA, Emanuela Bevilacqua. “We operate in a market dominated by large carriers that have developed global network. Most of them, however, do not directly provide services to African countries. On the contrary VueTel have significant knowledge and remarkable experience in these territories where we have been physically present and active for several years."

With the activation of PoP in New York, after the main nocs of London, Paris, Marseille, Milan, and Palermo, VueTel is consolidating more and more as an international benchmark for the wholesale market providing data to the African continent.

VueTel USA is then making its way into the vast world of industry 4.0., aiming to develop advanced telecommunications services based on artificial intelligence and Machine Learning. "For VueTel, which has a history of deep technological know-how", comments Emanuela Bevilacqua, "it becomes extremely stimulating to operate in a sector among the most competitive in the United States".

Data Scenario

From 2000 to the present day, Africa has experienced a strong increase in both fixed and mobile connectivity. According to data from the Internet World states, the continent's internet users grew from around 4.5 million in 2010 to nearly 350 million in 2017. The current level of penetration is around 28 per cent, slightly more than half of the rest of the world, but an exponential growth is expected to bring the African continent to comparable levels with the world average by 2020. According to the GSMA, by 2020 there will be more than 700 million mobile connections in Africa, more than twice the forecasts regarding North America.

In addition, the data services market is constantly expanding, with significant growth rates. According to MEF's estimates, the Metro Ethernet Forum, the global Carrier Ethernet services market will reach approximately $63 billion globally in 2019.

With regard to the African countries in which the largest number of American companies are present, there are: South Africa, Egypt, Morocco, Kenya and Nigeria. The sectors in which they operate are largely: energy, technology, Food & beverage, Agriculture, oil & gas.

Voice Network

The VueTel group is present with its network in London and Paris, a geographic cluster for TDM and VoIP, and in New York with a single full VoIP node completely redundant with the European cluster.

Data Network

The backbone connects the most important connectivity centres between Europe and Africa in ring-protected mode: London, Paris, Milan and Palermo, as well as Marseille and Lisbon, strategic points of arrival for submarine cables from Africa, the Middle East and the Americas. The offer is expanded with the new New York knot.

The offer for the business market includes internet and connectivity services for the creation of dedicated networks and VPNs. The data network provides quality performance and signal latency through the use of last-generation network and access technologies, a fully redundant high-capacity backbone, and nodes that connect the main landing stations of submarine cables With fiber-optic terrestrial networks.