FNB’s eWallet has seen increasing popularity and reached an impressive milestone with over R33 billion sent to users since the inception of the mobile money service and R1.2 billion sent every month to eWallets in South Africa.

Lytania Johnson CEO of eWallet Solutions at FNB attributes the success of eWallet to a few key factors.

“The ability to send money to any South African number has undoubtedly contributed to the success of eWallet, with the convenience of the facility and the ease of use being at the essence of its ever growing popularity in South Africa as well as other African regions,” says Johnson.

In South Africa there are 5 million people that have used eWallet since its inception with 3.5 million considered active users, meaning that they have used this service in the last six months.

Of the R33 billion, R27,8 billion has been sent through the traditional consumer eWallet service.

The newer business solution, eWallet Pro, makes up the additional R5,2 billion sends. This service allows businesses to pay workers without bank accounts and is showing good growth. It has the same functionality as the eWallet consumer service, but has the addition of a prepaid Visa Card.

“Our representation points including our ATMs, and additional cash out points such as our Slimeline ATM’s that are placed in spaza shops throughout the country, have eliminated accessibility problems because we have taken this service to the communities,” says Johnson.

In addition eWallet  has  created a solution to people’s everyday lives, where an individual does not need to withdraw the full amount of money sent to them, they can also perform other transactions such as purchase electricity or airtime.

In sub-Saharan Africa, FNB eWallet continues to do well with Namibia, Botswana, Zambia, Swaziland and Lesotho sending a combined R6,6 billion.

“Interestingly, in Namibia, eWallet has seen an impressive uptake in the number of users  with over 1 million eWallet users since inception, which means 50% of the adult population of Namibia now use eWallet,” concludes Johnson.