Orange Money Group has partnered with JUMO, a financial technology company offering banking-as-a-service, to expand access to digital financial services across Africa.
The partnership will introduce new microcredit solutions aimed at serving unbanked and underserved populations across the continent.
With over 100 million customers in sixteen countries across Africa and the Middle East, Orange Money Group facilitated more than €160 billion in transactions in 2024.
JUMO has disbursed over $8 billion to more than 31 million African customers, matching expertise and a desire to scale with Orange Money Group.
This partnership will enable Orange Money Group to advance its financial inclusion strategy by introducing new microcredit services to its customer value proposition.
The collaboration with JUMO leverages their data analytics and artificial intelligence capabilities, refined over 10 years to optimise credit allocation, reduce the cost of risk for lending to < 4% and grow sustainable portfolios.
This strategic alliance will also enable the rollout of various credit products across multiple markets from a multitude of funders, creating a new microfinance marketplace for the unbanked in emerging markets, with an initial focus on Francophone Africa.
JUMO’s leading expertise in asset allocation and credit risk management makes it a key partner for Orange Money Group in Africa. Orange Money Group customers will be eligible to securely request credit through their mobile devices, without needing a bank account or collateral.
JUMO has developed a range of short-term and installment loan products for consumers, merchants and distributors with limited access to these services. They use trained AI algorithms to assess credit risk and facilitate the immediate flow of capital through their partnerships with pan-African banks and development finance institutions.
JUMO’s AI-driven technology for banks and payments ecosystems will provide Orange Money Group the opportunity to introduce real-time app-based and USSD lending to their African customers. The offering is multi-country, multi-product, and multi-funding, with plans to launch in Burkina Faso imminent, to be followed by Mali and Botswana.
This partnership delivers a streamlined user experience that combines financial inclusion with cutting-edge technology. The process is as follows:
- Users access the service via their Orange Money Group wallet
- They request an amount of credit
- JUMO’s AI technology evaluates eligibility based on transactional data
- If validated, the amount is immediately credited to the user’s wallet.
- Repayment is made automatically according to agreed terms.
Aminata Kane, CEO of Orange Money Group said: “After developing transfer and payment services used thousands of times every second, we now aim to support our customers in their personal projects, as well as help them manage everyday emergencies. In recent years, Orange Money has expanded its portfolio with highly accessible small loan offers.”
“By partnering with JUMO, we aim to accelerate this momentum, roll out these services across a wide range of countries, and combine our expertise with their technology to deliver support that is even faster, more transparent, and better tailored to the needs of all our customers”.
Andrew Watkins-Ball, JUMO CEO and founder: “We are proud to have been chosen to partner with Orange and we are excited to connect Orange customers with products from the market-leading banks that run on our platform.
“This collaboration, built on top of Orange Money Group’s mobile payments and money transfer platforms, will provide customers with great financial choices and allows our bank partners to grow in new markets”.
