The U.K. mobile banking technology vendor Monitise PLC is planning to expand into Uganda.
The London company said Monday that its Ugandan expansion, funded by a $1.5 million grant from the Africa Enterprise Challenge Fund, is focused on the underbanked, and is aimed at helping them achieve the means to eventually graduate to more conventional banking services.
The fund provides financing for private companies to encourage new business ideas in African countries.
Monitise's mobile services include person-to-person payments, bill payment and e-commerce.
"The U.K. has highly regulated and well-developed payments systems which we, as consumers, can easily take for granted," Alastair Lukies, Monitise's chief executive, said in a press release. "In markets with little or no payments infrastructure, particularly in the rural areas, the mobile phone is providing a bridgehead for transformational services."
Monitise also operates a joint venture in the United States, Monitise Americas, with Fidelity National Information Services Inc.'s Metavante Technologies Inc. unit.
