Societe Generale is to invest EUR1 million in French mobile payments outfit TagPay under an initiative to maintain and grow its retail consumer base in the African sub-continent.
Created in 2005, TagPay uses Sound Based Technology to turn every existing mobile phone worldwide into a payment tool and authentication device, regardless of the operator. End users can use their mobiles to receive a salary, pay bills, send money and pay at points of sale.
SocGen, which has a presence in 18 African countries and represents 3.3 million clients, is already using the mobile channel across a number of different use cases in Senegal, Ivory Coast and as a basic mobile banking service in several Sub-Saharan African countries.
The EUR1 million investment represents an eight percent stake in TagPay. In a statement, SocGen says the service has several competitive advantages "in terms of speed of deployment as well as a rich catalogue of financial functions and services. It allows us to reach the unbanked by addressing basic mobile phones that still represent the majority of the stock in emerging countries."