E-money company Contopronto and Saudi Arabia's Zafa have agreed to start-up Contopronto technology in the Kingdom, confirmed Contopronto CEO, Morten Hofstad.
Contopronto will provide its technology to Zafa while Zafa applies for an e-money license from the Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority (SAMA). This new license would be similar to Contopronto's European license and would extend Contopronto's technology and products beyond the European Union (EU).
Contopronto was recently awarded one of the first European Union E-money licenses, allowing for mobile payments and money transfers anywhere within the EU in an amount up to about €1,250.
Mobile phone penetration continues to accelerate within Saudi Arabia, which has shown one of the highest increases in mobile penetration world-wide. A recent study showed that mobile phone penetration grew at a rate of almost 10 percent within the Arab world in 2003, compared to a growth rate of about 3.5 percent for fixed line phones.
Currently there are more than eight million mobile phone users within Saudi Arabia while there are only 3.4 million fixed lines in a country with a population of about 24 million people. — (menareport.com)
© 2004 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
