South Sudan’s first mobile money service provider Mgurush is gearing up to launch a new cross-border mobile money remittance service.

” Very soon we will be able to send and receive money across the border using m-GURUSH,” tweet from m-GURUSH reads.

A report from the service providers says the new system will enable customers in South Sudan to remit money and receive from East Africa countries; namely Kenya and Uganda.

According to a source at Mgurush, customers can send an amount in South Sudanese pound and the recipient in Kenya or Uganda will receive the payment in Shillings.

Currently, if anyone in South Sudan wants to remit money o families in East Africa involves the conversion of cash into US dollars and this would be sent via a remittance company and then converted into the required currency.

 M-Gurush was launched in partnership by Zain Telecom and Trinity Technologies to serve the roughly 13 million South Sudanese in the country.

According to a World Bank report, over 51 percent of the population lives below the poverty line. After persistent reports made a case for mobile money, the service was finally launched in July 2019 and will now enable bridging of financial inclusion gaps, as it has been shown across other developing nations on the African continent.

Mobile phone penetration in South Sudan stands at about 33 percent, which is approximately 4 million people across all the 32 states of the country.