(Ecofin Agency) - According to French newspaper Le Monde, Orange will, before the end of 2016, introduce Near Field Communication (NFC) technology to its Mobile Money service in Africa. A universal reader equipped with NFC, developed by the French start-up Famoco, will be used by thousands of agents spread over Orange’s Money sales points in Guinea, Madagascar, Mali, Morocco, Senegal and Tunisia.

Cited by Le Monde, Famoco’s co-founder said these six countries were the first where Orange is present to have ordered for the devices. He added that “in the long run, between 40,000 to 50,000 Orange devices should be sold”.

Developed in 2010, Famoco’s universal reader will be used by Orange money’s agents in the framework of account creation, deposit and withdrawal by customers. During the transactions, the Orange money agent will put an NFC-incorporated sticker on the back of the client’s phone. Then the concerned client will bring his phone near the reader which will display the possible transactions (deposit-withdrawal).

Orange affirmed that the NFC reader will make its mobile money service safer and more professional. Developed under Android, Orange will be able to install any application on the Famoco reader. Hence, beyond the simple deposit and withdrawal transactions, the telecom group could for example add the ‘buy’ option to the device thus providing an alternative payment method to businesses, one cheaper than traditional e-payment terminals.