Mobile Money Options for Africans in America

June 4, 2010

Shaka Mobile, a prepaid mobile and mobile money service for ex pat Africans, has announced a new service that enables subscribers to top-up the prepaid mobile telephones of their family and friends back home.

Top ups can be initiated by mobile text message, or through the Shaka Web site, and are processed in real time. Both sender and receiver are immediately notified of a transaction via text messages.

The new service is the product of a partnership between Shaka and TransferTo, a global mobile airtime network that supports small-value money transfers using mobile phones.

Shaka burst on the scene earlier this year, and presently supports mobile telephony and money transfer services from the U.S, and the United Kingdom to Kenya, with plans to expand to home countries throughout Africa.

The company, which is based in the U.S., takes its name from a Hawaiian hand greeting, the most common translation of which is "hang loose."

Americans borrow about $40 billion a year from payday lenders

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