In a statement published on July 7, 2016, Société Générale announced it acquired an 8% stake in French fintech TagPay to develop its mobile banking offer in Africa.

TagPay provides a virtual banking platform which can be used on basic phones as well as on smartphones. The solution has many competitive advantages in terms of operating speed, financial services, and services catalogue.

TagPay’s CEO, Yves Eonnet, told newspaper Les Echos that his company can establish a bank within three months, while Société Générale installed its Togolese unit in 15 months, in 2015.

The range of services offered includes money transfer, proximity payment, and bill payment.

With this solution, Société Générale, plans to double within 5 years its customer base in 7 African countries, to 2.3 million. The group also wants to move from 300 agencies to 8,000 contact points with its customer base.

Consulting and audit firm PricewaterhouseCoopers and law firm Wilegal by providing their skills will insure that Société Générale effectively enters TagPay’s capital.