O UnitelMoney, mobile and instant payments and transfers service via telephone terminals, from the company UNITEL Serviços de Pagamentos Móveis, (SU), SA, grew by 25% per month, in its first three months of activity in the Angolan market.
This information was released by Unitel's Director of Technologies, Eduardo Pinto, speaking at the IV Conference on Digital Transformation, subject to the theme “The Challenges of Digital Acceleration in Angola”, earlier this week, where he added that the objective of the digital portfolio is to grow even more and increase the number of users exponentially, for which the telecommunications company is preparing with “big campaigns at the end of the year”.
Eduardo Pinto, who was speaking at the event about means of payment, focusing on the new instant transfer system and its impact on financial inclusion in our country, also said that payment services are a continuation of services that already exist, whereby "can't be a problem”, continuing that training and awareness campaigns have been created, associating the experience of using the «multicaixa» network and the use of these platforms.
When questioned about the security of these means of payment, the Director reinforced that there are two levels of security in the system, so we do not run the same risk as what happened with bitcoins because we are not talking about electronic money.
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At the same conference it was also revealed that only about seven million citizens are internet users, a rate considered very low, given that in terms of mobile telephony services there are more than 15 million users throughout the national territory.
For Eng. Crisóstomo Mbundu (Acelera Net Program Manager at Angola Cables), the country is currently experiencing an era of digital acceleration, which has been driven by various factors and phenomena, including Covid-19, which unfortunately negatively affected the economy of countries, including Angola, as well as reinforcing the importance of developing a stronger and more inclusive digital economy, providing opportunities for digital business.
The manager also added that when talking about digital acceleration three pillars should be mentioned, with infrastructure as the main basis, and recognized that there is a robust international capacity, present in the Data Center, already with various contents and diversified operators.
"Angola is growing in terms of operators, but the distribution of content to the final operator in different locations still shows major weaknesses, as everything is allocated in the country's capital, a situation that constitutes a challenge”, he reinforced.
For the digital engineer, the user rate is still considered low and is only around 26,5 percent. Calculations presented by the technician reveal that only three out of 10 Angolan users have access to the Net.
