Movirtu, the supplier of network infrastructure solutions for mobile operators servicing rural poor communities, today announced the launch of MXPay at AfricaCom, Africa's Premier Communications Congress and Exhibition taking place in Cape Town 11-12 November.

Mobile phone technology is making it possible to reduce the cost of providing reliable, affordable financial services to the unbanked, however 80% of the people living below the poverty line do not own a phone or a SIM card required to use these services. MXPay enables mobile operators to deploy existing mobile payment systems to those people living on less than $2 a day without the need for the user to own a phone or SIM card, thus drastically reducing the cost of entry for these services.

"Everyone is talking about banking the unbanked," said Andrew Fok, VP Engineering of Movirtu. "We are enabling banking of the unphoned".

Movirtu partners with mobile operators who have an existing mobile payment service to launch the service in a specific country. Users subscribe to the mobile payment service and are given a mobile phone number on a paper card which they can use to send and receive remittances using community phones or other people's mobile phones. Alternatively if a subscriber already has a SIM card, they can send and receive payments without the need to swap SIM cards and risk leaving personal data on other people's phones. NGOs and welfare organizations can also use the service to distribute funds to specific people without the need to buy mobile phones or SIM cards.

"We have been listening to those people living at the Base of the Pyramid and their needs," said Nigel Waller, Founder and CEO of Movirtu. "We are striving to help people escape poverty by helping them to build a personal identity".

MXPay will be available initially for mobile operators located in Africa and South Asia.