MTN has halted registration on its mobile money service in South Africa.

According to Larry Annet, head of the customer experience division, cited by South African news website fin24.com, the firm is currently conducting, in collaboration with Bank of Athens, Pick n Pay and Boxer stores, its partners in the Mobile Money adventure launched in 2012, a feasibility study to determine if MTN SA should continue offering the service to its customers.

Despite halting new Mobile Money registrations, MTN said the service is still active for already registered users, about 140,000 people. The telecom giant was in fact driven to halt the registration process because of bad performances recorded in South Africa, its largest market, while the service in other African nations such as Cameroon, Cote d’Ivoire or Uganda fares better.

Since it has been launched in South Africa, MTN Money couldn’t grab 500,000 users. Yet, the group’s other subsidiaries recorded a great success with at places more than a million Mobile Money users.

Given the relatively high rate of bancarization (60% of population in 2008 according to the French Development Agency), mobile money was not able to really take off in South Africa. This even drove telecom operator Vodacom to end its M-Pesa service as it also suffered MTN’s current ordeal.

Muriel Edjo