A first of its kind ‘seamless and secure’ payment solution that allows users to make purchases using their airtime comes on-stream in South Africa courtesy of the new partnership entered into by Huawei technologies and MTN South Africa to launch Direct Carrier Billing (DCB) which will help unbanked customers to purchase online content and services.

With this solution, contract customers will now have the amount added to their monthly mobile phone bill, while prepaid customers will have the amount deducted directly from their available airtime. This means you can still pay for all your favourite offerings from Huawei Mobile Services without having to share your credit card details.

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Speaking on the development, Ernst Fonternel, Chief Digital Officer of MTN South Africa says that it could not have come at a better time as “MTN recently reached 100 million active data customers across 21 countries in Africa and the Middle East. This shows that our customers are increasingly adopting digital offerings and we are continuously looking to meet this demand with fresh offerings that will add value to our customers,”

“We are proud to partner with Huawei to offer our customers the simplicity of purchasing from the various Huawei Mobile Services with Prepaid Airtime or Postpaid Add to Bill. As we continue to roll out our 5G network, we believe that the demand for smarter apps will increase and we want to ensure that our customers enjoy the benefits of a modern connected life in an easy, convenient and safe way.”

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The DCB service on Huawei devices will first be available on the MTN network, and then will be rolled out later to other networks. The billing service offers customers a multitude of benefits, including:

Better conversion rates: DCB requires the device users to only enter their phone number to make a payment.

Smooth customer experience: DCB is convenient. There is no need to sign up for any additional accounts or fill out any forms.

Protected consumer identity: Making payments with DCB is secure. No personal data is transmitted during the payment process so there is no need to worry about identity theft.

Kelechi Deca

Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry