VeriFone Mobile Money and Airtel Africa, part of the Bharti Airtel Group, last week announced they had reached an agreement to offer VeriFone Mobile Money's merchant enablement applications for mobile Tap n' Pay across their 17 operating companies in Africa, according to a press release.

Consumers can use VeriFone Mobile Money's Tap n Pay applications to pay, buy, bank, bill and remit funds with their mobile phone at the point of sale, according to the announcement.

"Airtel is excited to offer VeriFone Mobile Money's applications to our teeming Airtel Mobile Money customers across Africa," Chidi Okpala, director and head of Airtel Money in Africa, said in a statement. "Using their Airtel Money Wallet with VeriFone's contactless / NFC point of sale terminals our customers will have a more convenient, fast and secure way to make multiple payment transactions utilizing Tap n' Pay.

"With this solution, we will be at the forefront of efforts to transform payments systems within the public mass transit and retail sectors in Africa."

VeriFone Mobile Money has signed a group master agreement for the delivery of its merchant enablement products to Airtel Africa part of the Bharti Airtel Group of companies with operations in 20 countries across Asia and Africa, according to the press release. VeriFone Mobile Money will implement a full suite of retail enablement applications integrated to VeriFone's range of payment devices across the group, enabling the deployment of mobile point of sale, POS and biometrics for international remittance to Airtel Money customers.