Ericsson, leading mobile phone company, and MTN, Africa’s largest telecom operator, announced a strategic new partnership to boost the m-wallet services in Africa and the Middle East.

Announced at the Mobile World Conference in Barcelona, Spain on Monday, MTN will become the first operator to officially deploy the Ericsson’s Converged Wallet platform. Both companies said the service is “a new complementary service to the integrated pre-paid charging system and mobile financial services solution for MTN consumers in those regions”.

The new m-wallet reportedly delivers a fast track route for MTN to introduce relevant, new and differentiated m-wallet market offerings to its Mobile Money customers.

As part of the co-operation, Ericsson said it would offer a prime integrator engagement model encompassing “software, systems integration and managed operation services”.

Christian de Faria, MTN Group Chief Commercial Officer, said, “Optimizing the Mobile Money consumer experience directly impacts consumer stickiness, and with Ericsson Converged Wallet we can now address our strategic priorities by enabling rapid response to our consumer’s preferences and expectations”.

MTN said it currently has more than 5 million mobile money subscribers in 12 African countries.

“2012 will be the year of partnerships across the emerging m-commerce eco-system. MTN has long been an early adopter in mobile money, and this new partnership builds on our ongoing relationship of collaboration,” said Hans Vestberg, Ericsson President and CEO.

“Driving accelerated time to market for operators and linking wallet accounts to purchases across multiple payment systems is a clear next step in next generation mobile financial services.”

Joseph Mayton