Kenya-based Cellulant, a provider of mobile financial services, announced a new deal with Barclays Africa aimed at fostering the development of new mobile financial products and services. The company said it will provide digital services for Barclays Africa in 12 African countries.

Cellulant provides mobile banking for more than 32 banks in Africa and operates Africa’s leading mobile commerce network.

According to the announcement, Cellulant will help make Barclays Africa's mobile, internet banking and ATMs more convenient through the deployment of a new aggregator platform. The platform will help banks connect to third-party services like mobile network operators and mobile wallet providers.

Cellulant's new platform will be deployed in stages in Ghana, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Egypt, Mauritius, Mozambique, Tanzania, Uganda, Seychelles, Botswana and Kenya. The platform will give users access to mobile banking, merchant payments and other banking services, Cellulant's Chief Business Officer Paul Ndichu, said in the announcement

"We have built a mobile commerce network that is connected to different platforms across different value chains in Africa such as MNO wallets, banks, merchant bill payment gateways and content delivery channels to deliver a transformational experience on mobile," Ndichu said.

Barclays Africa said the deal is a part of its One Africa strategy to provide its retail and corporate clients with access to the mobile channel.

"For our corporate clients, this offers an efficient and cost-effective channel to bill and receive payments from their customers," said Barclays Africa’s Corporate Banking Managing Director John Gachora.

Gachora said the partnership will also allow the bank to innovate and develop new products and services for its customers across Africa.

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