Sama Money, a provider of mobile money services in Burundi, Côte d’Ivoire and Mali, recently purchased the Malian microfinance institution Première Agence de MicroFinance (PAMF), after receiving approval from the Central Bank of West African States to operate as an Electronic Money Establishment (EME). This collaboration will “combine PAMF’s expertise in credit provision with Sama Money’s mastery of mobile payments,” according to a statement attributed to Sama CEO Daouda Coulibaly.
Prior to the acquisition, PAMF was owned by the Luxembourg-based Aga Khan Agency for Microfinance (AKAM), a unit of the Switzerland-based Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN), which operates in approximately 30 countries in Asia and Africa. PAMF’s target market is artisans, traders and farmers in rural areas, to whom it supplies individual and group credit as well as saving services to roughly equal numbers of women and men. The microbank operates five service locations in the towns of Djénné, Koro, Mopti, Sévaré and Sikasso. Financial details on PAMF are not available.
Established in 2018 and based in Mali, Sama Money offers mobile payments including to enable users to receive scholarships, wages and pensions as well as to pay for telecommunication services and utilities. The app has no charges on transfers, deposits or service purchases, instead charging cash withdrawal fees of 0.5 percent to 1 percent.
By Hawra Moochhala, Research Associate
Sources and Additional Resources
Techeconomy article
https://techeconomy.ng/sama-money-acquires-first-microfinance-agency-to-improve-financial-inclusion-in-mali/
Sama Money homepage
https://sama.money/
Sama Money Burundi homepage
https://bi.sama.money/
Sama app on the App Store
https://apps.apple.com/ml/app/sama-money/id1499209733
Sama app on Google Play
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=sama.money.samaweb
AKDN profile on PAMF
https://the.akdn/en/where-we-work/west-africa/mali/microfinance-mali
Previous MicroCapital article on PAMF Mali
https://www.microcapital.org/microcapital-brief-advans-cote-divoire-aga-khans-pamf-mali-borrowing-3-8m-grameen-credit-agricole-microfinance-foundation/
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