Bharti Airtel has partnered with Central African financial group BGFIBank Group to expand mobile money access to the bank’s customers, the telecoms group announced according to Telegeography.com on Aug 7, 2014. As such, the partnership will see the telco’s existing Airtel Money service become accessible to BGFIBank customers in Gabon, the Republic of Congo, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Madagascar. Going forward, BGFIBank account holders will be able to transfer money between their bank account and their Airtel Money account, check their BGFI account balance, and order checkbooks via their mobile phone. Chidi Okpala, director of Airtel Money, said, “This is a significant milestone for Airtel Africa as we seek to broaden our pan-African footprint for Airtel Money to serve customers better.”

BGFIBank Group, which is headquartered in Gabon, has subsidiaries in eight countries: Gabon, Benin, Republic of Congo, DRC, Equatorial Guinea, Madagascar, Cote d’Ivoire and France.