Western Union and Hello Paisa, one of South Africa’s largest international money transfer providers have joined forces to enable Hello Paisa customers to send global money transfers for payout at the global network of Western Union.
This partnership enables Hello Paisa customers to send money from South Africa to their family and loved ones for pay-out into billions of bank accounts in more than 100 countries, millions of wallets in a dozen countries or to Western Union’s retail network across 200 countries and territories. 
This collaboration further delivers on Western Union’s strategy to open its platform to third-party partners to help them expand their global reach, meet customers’ evolving needs, and solve the complexities of cross-border, cross-currency money movement. Western Union’s open platform strategy is underpinned by the company’s continued investment in key capabilities such as digital, expanding real-time account payout, compliance, and technology.
We are excited to collaborate with Hello Paisa, a company that shares our vision for inclusive innovation and financial inclusion in Africa. This service is an integration of our strengths as we continue to drive global connectivity by enabling national enterprises to scale their business offerings worldwide, leveraging our cross-border platform and global network.
We are also proud to see more and more local and regional fintech companies in Africa reap the benefits of our open platform strategy and white labelled digital capabilities to solve the complexities of cross-border, cross-currency money movement and enhance customer experience.
In order to start sending money with Hello Paisa, customers need to either self-sign up on the Hello Paisa app, be signed up by a Hello Paisa agent or at the nearest Hello store. A valid South Africa ID, foreign passport with a permit or asylum permit, along with a proof of address are required to sign up. Upon verification by Hello Paisa, an activation SMS will be sent to the customer to start transacting.
Hello Paisa offers a Stage & Pay service to its customers. Customers would stage transactions on the Hello Paisa mobile app, via the call center or at agent locations. Once staged, they will receive a confirmation with a reference number by SMS. Customers will then have to complete the transaction by making payment using the reference number at retail locations or via a bank transfer to select banks in South Africa.
