Airtel Money, the mobile financial services arm of Airtel Africa, has officially launched a new cloud-native mobile money platform across its African markets. Developed by Indian telecom solutions leader Comviva and powered by its mobiquity Pay technology, the rollout began in Kenya on November 11, 2025, with plans to expand across multiple Airtel Africa markets over the coming year.
This marks a pivotal milestone in Airtel Money’s digital transformation journey. The company is pushing forward with an ambitious strategy to enhance how it delivers financial services to its 49.8 million customers, with a broader goal of building a truly interconnected digital financial ecosystem across Africa.
Key Takeaways
- New Platform: Airtel Money has adopted Comviva’s cloud-native mobiquity Pay platform.
- Initial Rollout: Deployment began in Kenya and will soon extend across other Airtel Africa markets.
- Customer Reach: The platform supports Airtel Money’s 49.8 million customers.
- Core Benefits: Enhanced operational efficiency, scalability, security, and faster innovation cycles.
- Technical Edge: Equipped with 50+ advanced features and 120+ open APIs for partner integrations.
Accelerating Financial Inclusion in Africa
The introduction of this new platform directly aligns with Airtel Money’s mission to advance financial inclusion throughout the continent. In many African regions, mobile money isn’t just a convenience-it’s a financial lifeline. Millions rely on these services to save, transfer, or borrow funds in places where access to traditional banking remains limited or non-existent.
Airtel Money continues to focus on expanding affordability, accessibility, and awareness of essential financial services such as remittances, savings, micro-loans, and insurance. With this upgrade, the company can bring these services to more people, more efficiently.
Ian Ferrao, CEO of Airtel Money, captured the scale of the project, saying, “This is not just a technology upgrade, it’s a complete transformation of how we serve our customers.” He explained that the new system forms the foundation for a future-ready financial ecosystem, enabling individuals and businesses across Africa to access a wider range of financial opportunities.
Technology and Security Highlights
The backbone of this transformation is its cloud-native architecture, which allows the platform to scale dynamically and operate with higher efficiency. Comviva’s mobiquity Pay is particularly known for its open architecture, enabling faster partner onboarding, smoother integration, and rapid product innovation-essential in a fintech landscape that evolves almost daily.
With over 50 advanced features and 120+ open APIs, the system offers unmatched flexibility for Airtel Money and its partners.
Already deployed in more than 50 countries, Comviva’s mobiquity Pay processes billions of transactions annually. Built with a security-first design, the platform incorporates advanced protections like federated identity management and multi-factor authentication, ensuring customer trust, regulatory compliance, and resilience against emerging cyber threats.
Rajesh Chandiramani, CEO of Comviva, emphasized that this rollout goes beyond a technical shift, noting that “cloud-native deployment is a catalyst for accelerating financial inclusion, allowing millions to access secure, intelligent, and meaningful digital financial services.”
A Step Toward a Smarter, More Inclusive Digital Future
For Airtel Money users, the upgrade will translate into a more intuitive user experience, better self-service capabilities, and smoother cross-border transactions. The system’s flexibility means Airtel can quickly adapt to new market demands, introduce innovative features, and strengthen its position as a comprehensive digital financial services provider across Africa’s rapidly growing fintech landscape.
Related FAQs
Q1: What is a cloud-native platform in mobile money?
A1: A cloud-native platform is designed specifically to operate within a cloud environment. It leverages technologies like microservices and containers, allowing faster scalability, greater resilience, and more agile service deployment compared to older, monolithic systems.
Q2: What is Comviva mobiquity Pay?
A2: Comviva’s mobiquity Pay is a robust digital financial services platform trusted by telecom operators and financial institutions worldwide. It powers mobile wallets, digital payments, money transfers, and related services, helping providers launch and manage secure, scalable ecosystems quickly.
Q3: How does this platform benefit Airtel Money customers?
A3: Users will experience enhanced security, including multi-factor authentication, a more user-friendly interface, and faster, smoother international transfers. The 120+ open APIs also mean that Airtel Money can integrate new fintech services more swiftly, giving customers access to a broader range of products.
Q4: Why is this upgrade important for financial inclusion in Africa?
A4: In regions where mobile money is often the primary access point for financial services, a scalable and feature-rich system allows Airtel Money to reach more underserved users. It helps introduce affordable financial tools-like micro-loans or insurance-while supporting secure, high-volume transactions. This kind of modernization strengthens the entire digital financial ecosystem across the continent.
