Kenya’s second-largest mobile money platform Airtel Money announced a partnership with payments service firm Flutterwave in a bid to extend its services for businesses across Eastern Africa. Flutterwave is a service that “lets you sell wherever your customers are — online, in‑person, anywhere in the world, and everywhere in-between.”

The new services are scheduled to go live subject to regulatory approvals in the respective countries as it reaches Airtel Money’s 19.2 million customers across the region.

According to Airtel, the partnership will enable businesses in Uganda, Tanzania, Zambia, Malawi, Kenya and Rwanda to receive and send payments via Airtel Money. This is as long as they integrate Flutterwave into their systems.

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“Airtel Money is committed to bridging the digital divide and enhancing financial and digital inclusion for millions of businesses across sub-Saharan Africa. Our partnership with Flutterwave will help to empower even more customers through simple and accessible payments services, using the latest technologies, that support business innovation and boost local economies,” said Airtel Mobile Commerce BV CEO, Vimal Kumar Ambat.

Flutterwave CEO Olugbenga GB Agboola spoke of the partnership as well saying, “Our business goal is to continue to support African businesses digitize their payments methods and introduce them to a world of opportunities that come with digitization. We are excited to have partnered with Airtel Money to further advance local businesses’ payment methods which will allow them to increasingly provide more services to their customers, grow their customer base and revenue.”

This partnership is meant to take advantage of an upward spike in the mobile money industry that was triggered in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.