YUP a mobile money looks to be the alternative to traditional banking model in Africa. It enables users to have access to a full range of transactional and financial services even without a bank account.
YUP is accessible via an expanded network of distributors equipped with adapted terminals and, of course, via the mobile banking app of Societe Generale’s different banks throughout Africa.
YUP’s customers can withdraw, deposit, and transfer money, pay bills, buy phone credit, and make payments to merchants. The YUP solution also digitises corporates’ payment flows. It is said that, soon, financial services like payday advances, credit, savings products, and international transfers will be added.
Deployed in Côte d’Ivoire and Senegal, YUP already has more than 30,000 open wallets and nearly 600 agents. YUP will continue its development with launches planned in Ghana and Cameroon before year end, and then Burkina Faso, Guinea, and Togo in 2018, before expanding to the entire network.
Societe Generale’s ambition is to open one million wallets by 2020 and considerably expand its network by hiring 8000 agents over the same period.
« Africa is inventing the future of banking. The project’s key ambition is to be a part of this revolution by offering a simple transactional tool that’s accessible to all residents of the countries in which Societe Generale does business, be they individuals or corporations, Group customers, account holders with our competitors, or customers without bank accounts. This last category makes up 80%-90% of the population depending on the country, and it’s a major financial inclusion challenge in which the Group wants to take part through YUP, » says Alexandre Maymat, Head of the Africa/Mediterranean Basin & Overseas region.
