From AllAfrica. Story by Ben Gasore.

MTN Rwanda subscribers will soon be able to make cross-border mobile money transactions, thanks to a deal MTN Group signed with Vodafone Group.

The deal will see MTN users in Rwanda transfer cash to Kenya or Tanzania through Safaricom and Tanzania’s Vodacom M-Pesa platform “within weeks,” according to Norman Munyampundu, the head of mobile money at MTN Rwanda.

U.K.-based Vodafone owns controlling stakes in Kenya’s Safaricom and Vodacom.

Munyampundu said they are already conducting technical tests for the service, as well as working on country-specific contracts to conclude the deal.

“We are still testing the service with Safaricom’s M-Pesa…However, we will launch mobile money transactions between MTN Rwanda and Vodacom in the coming weeks after finalising the paperwork,” he said.

Munyampundu said the initiative is part of the firm’s wider plan to facilitate cross-border mobile money transfers in the region and ease the cost of doing business.

MTN Group signed a collaboration agreement that will allow MTN mobile money users in Uganda, Rwanda and Zambia to make international remittances with M-Pesa customers in Kenya, Tanzania, the DRC, Mozambique, and vice versa.

MTN and Bharti Airtel announced plans to start cross-border mobile money transfers between the Northern Corridor states – Rwanda, Kenya and Uganda In November.

However, the telecoms say the service launch was postponed following regulatory delays by Kenyan and Ugandan communications agencies.

Read more at AllAfrica.