Investec Asset Management invests to develop mobile banking in Africa

Investec Asset Management has announced it acquired - through its Africa-focused private equity fund - a minority stake in technology services firm wiGroup with a view to increase the firm's software sales to mobile money issuers in Africa.

wiGroup delivers solutions that enable corporates to accept mobile transactions, and has processed a total in-store mobile transaction value of more than R4 billion (€277 million).

"We want to capitalise on its presence and the position it has built in SA. The second aspect is to help the business win more customers and get business outside SA," Investec’s private equity investment principal William Alexander told Business Daily.

The Investec Africa Private Equity Fund II has also invested in telecoms towers business IHS Africa in Nigeria and IDM, a debt management company in South Africa, and has entered a partnership with Nigerian electronic payment processing firm Interswitch.