The Paradox of Calling Mobile Money ‘Mobile’ in Asia

Comment "Very interesting article about the paradox of calling Mobile Money programs that mostly rely on over the counter (OTC) transaction. The author describe the agent network mechanism and challenges. Lots of tips given and a paradox which also exist in African Mobile Money programs"

Extract "Despite the success of these wonderful companies, there is a ‘dirty little secret’ about mobile money in Asia. Perhaps dirty little secret is a touch too controversial, but the reality is that the success of mobile money in Asia has less to do with mobile, and far more to do with agents. In fact, it would be more appropriate to call the business model ‘agent money’, as the success or failure of this part of the value chain is critical to the operation."


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UGANDA:Mobile money rates for paying utility bills increase

Commentaire "At the end, someone has to pay, even in Mobile Payments... That is a lesson learn from Uganda market. When the billers decide to stop top pay for the money collection, customers have to pay for the service. But if the service is good and affordable, it seems fair. Isn't it ? 

Extract "MTN Mobile Money has increased its transmission charges for payment of utility bills. The affected bills are those for National Water and Sewerage Corporation and Umeme electricity. "

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More Zimbabwe companies paying salaries using mobile money

Comments "Payroll  by mobile is rising in Zimbabwe due to a cash crunch. Payroll in one of the most promising use case in mobile payment. It avoids the cash in step and will certainly lead to merchant payments once installed"

Extract " A ‘cash crunch’ in Zimbabwe is forcing more local companies to turn to mobile money to pay workers’ salaries.

This is according to officials at Econet who say that use of their ‘EcoCash Payroll’ service has risen 82% amid “liquidity problems” facing banks in the country."

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10 Useful Data Sources for Measuring Financial Inclusion

Comment "Interesting explanations of the GSMA about all the various source of information relative to mobile money and statistics. Everyone is looking about accurate data regarding financial inclusion. Here is some help how to find them" 

Extract "In recent years, data sources for financial inclusion have become richer yet more complicated to navigate. On the demand side, there are numerous sources: The Global Findex was released in 2012; there are various country-level surveys like FinScope, FinAccess and the Financial Inclusion Tracker Survey (FITS) just to name a few. Similarly, the supply-side data sources have grown and deepened to include more focus on sub-national data and to cover more indicators."
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HOW M-PESA INNOVATES NEW BUSINESS MODELS FOR ITS BASE OF THE PYRAMID CUSTOMERS

Comments "Discover how M-Pesa is using the feedback of its user to create new product and bring again innovation in our mobile money world"

Extract "M-Pesa is one of the biggest success stories in the history of serving customers at the economic bottom of the pyramid--the world's poorest. Launched in 2007 by Safaricom, it quickly dominated the cash transfer market, and grew at an astounding rate, capturing more than two-thirds of Kenya's adult population as customers."

A Quick and Complete History of Bitcoin

Comments "I have a lot of question around this new "currency". So here is another nice infographic to avoid being completely loss with Bitcoins"

Find it here

Mobile payments predictions 2014

You will find below a nice info-graphic about m-payments and m-commerce in 2014.

Mobile payments predictions 2014

MTN Ghana launches Send Money Home promotion

Comments “This is an example of the kind of incentives the operators can do to promote their Xborder offer. Air time topup has a marginal cost for them. What can do banks in front of this? Offer top up on bank accounts?”

Extract "MTN Ghana, the leading telecoms service provider in voice and data services, has announced a reward package for all customers who send money through MTN Mobile Money. The promotion, dubbed “Send Money Home,” is currently available till 5^thJanuary 2014. "

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Ghana: Airtel Money launches Mr.Money 5-5 promo

Comments "E-commerce, new Xborder functionality, free top up pushed with a dedidated communication, etc. Xmas in advance for Airtel Money user.. Competition is tough in Ghana between operators !"

Extract "Airtel Ghana has unveiled a new and exciting promotion on its Airtel Money platform called Mr. Money 5-5 promo that is set to reward customers for every transaction they make using Airtel Money."

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La sécurité des paiements mobiles inquiète la BCE

Commentaires "Dans un système de paiement ou tout se base sur la confiance des clients dans les acteurs de la chaine de paiement, l'ouverture à de nouveau type d'acteur ou d'usage via les wallets, mPos, VAD en boutique, etc inquiète la BCE malgré un marché dynamique et en pleine expansion"

Extrait "Les innovations se multiplient sur le marché du paiement mobile. Portefeuilles électroniques, paiements entre particuliers, paiement sans contact ou transformation de smartphones en terminal de paiement, les grands acteurs de ce jeune marché rivalisent d’idées pour développer les paiements du futur.

Des nouveautés que regarde avec attention la Banque centrale européenne (BCE). Le Conseil des gouverneurs de l’institution financière a lancé le 15 novembre une consultation publique afin d’affiner ses recommandations pour la sécurité des paiements par téléphone mobile. Les différents acteurs du secteur ont jusqu’au 31 janvier 2014 pour envoyer leurs commentaires à la BCE."

Plus d'infos ici

MasterCard: Don't 'copy and paste' mobile money services

Comments "This statement should sound like a evidence but it is good sometime to recall it. A “Copy and Paste” is attractive, especially for large corporate but it is unlikely to succeed in mobile payments. See Why”

Extract "“cut and paste” approach to mobile financial services is unlikely to lead to successful propositions, with services tailored to local markets the preferred option, Zahir Khoja, CEO of Mobile Payment Solutions (MPS), said during this morning’s keynote session."

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POLi Payments court-circuite les banques

Commentaires "Initiative Australienne effectivement proche techniquement de celle proposée en Europe par My Bank (EBA) mais diffusée et marketée de façon différente. Reste a savoir si ailleurs les banques seront prêtes à offrir l'accès direct au APIs web banking nécessairent à son fonctionnement." 

Extract "Son service existe depuis quelque temps mais son annonce d'une nouvelle option d'échange d'argent entre amis via Facebook me permet de m'attarder un moment sur une jeune entreprise australienne (également présente en Nouvelle-Zélande), POLi Payments, dont la solution de paiement en ligne soulève d'intéressantes questions.
Le dernier ajout (en version beta) que vient de présenter la société permet de profiter des mêmes mécanismes sur Facebook, pour gérer des échanges d'argent de personne à personne (P2P) : le demandeur crée un compte dans l'application (en fournissant son RIB, ou, du moins, l'équivalent australien) puis envoie une requête de paiement à ses amis, qui vont alors, sans quitter le réseau social, accéder à leur compte via les services en ligne de leur banque et valider le virement correspondant."

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Understanding Customers for Financial Innovation in Ghana

Comments "Interesting study of the CGAP about the mobile money market in Ghana. Despite a lot of advantages in terms of phone users, literacy rate, GDP, operators did not found the right formula for ma mobile monney take off. An opportunity for other players?"

Extract "The branchless banking market in Ghana is promising but has not gained traction as expected. Even though the main providers have actively brought services to market, mobile money usage is low. Our partner, Tigo Cash, is dynamic and full of new ideas. Yet they are struggling with high numbers of inactive customers just as other operators are. CGAP and Tigo Cash decided to work together in order to better understand what’s preventing Ghanaian customers from actively using mobile money and to develop more compelling offerings that customers in this market would actively use."

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P2P survey finds appetite for digital payments

Comments. "This survey is interesting because its helps to understand customer's needs in terms of use case. Helping customers to solve their day to day small issues with existing payment means is a good starting point for any mobile payment company"

Extract "While most person-to-person payments are made with cash or checks, a growing number of consumers would prefer a digital option, according to a recent survey. The survey, "How Americans Pay Each Other," conducted on behalf of the financial services technology solution provider Fiserv, queried more than 2,500 Americans and looked at P2P, or social payment"

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EcoCash adds 200,000 more subscribers in a month

Comments "Impressive growth of this new provider and interessant figures in this article. Nevertheless I am wondering how they ensure a correct KYC of all enrollement forms..."

Extract "Less than a month ago, Econet announced that it had connected a million subscribers on its mobile money platform, Ecocash. Yesterday, a Twitter update by the CEO of Pattern Matched, Markus Schorn, revealed that Econet has since signed on an additional 200,000 subscribers to the mobile money service since the March"

Less than a month ago, Econet announced that it had connected a million subscribers on its mobile money platform, Ecocash. Yesterday, a Twitter update by the CEO of Pattern Matched, Markus Schorn, revealed that Econet has since signed on an additional 200,000 subscribers to the mobile money service since the March announcement - See more at: http://www.techzim.co.zw/2012/04/ecocash-adds-200000-subscribers-in-a-month-growth-trend-since-launch/#sthash.XTIubvsL.dpuf

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Surge in popularity of mobile money systems

Comments "Another area of the world where mobile money is growing up quickly !"

Extract "Within a couple of years of introduction, mobile money systems have gained popularity in Bangladesh as in several other countries in the developing and the least developed countries."

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TAG Attitude et le mobile payement Afrique

Pas d’article pour une fois mais un Podcast à réécouter sur le développement du paiement par mobile en Afrique et le rôle de TagAttitude, société française qui exporte bien sa technologie (découvert des basiques)

Lien podcast

The big payoff: Getting customers active at registration

Comment "Everyone who as roll out a mobile money program in an emerging country knows that customer activation is one of the key success. Very good study from Philip Levin (GSMA) on this challenge"

Extract "Low customer activity rates have been a persistent challenge across the mobile money industry. As of June 2012, industry-wide active rates stood at 22%.  The question every operator is asking: How can one increase customer activity and therefore mobile money ARPUs?"

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Uganda Cashless

Comment "Uganda mobile money market is dynamic and the competition is though. Is it enough for a cashless country one day ?"

Extract "A cashless economy is one in which the purchase of goods and services and the payment of debts and remittances are done through electronic money media, either through credit and debit cards, direct transfers from one account to another, smart cards, mobile payment systems, and other technologies."

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Kenya:Phones moved Sh1.5 trillion last year

Comment "Thanks to M-Pesa, Kenya is leading mobile money in Africa  and will stay first for a long time according to me. Where will it stop ?"

Extract "KENYANS last year transacted more than Sh1.5 trillion using mobile money transfer services like M-pesa and Airtel Money, Central Bank statistics show.

The financial stability report released by CBK shows that mobile phone money transfer services grew by 31.5 per cent in the value of transactions on the back of growth in the number of agents.

The number of agents rose by 52.4 per cent to stand at 76,912 up from 50,471 as competitors rolled out more outlets. In the period, the number of users rose 9.9 per cent to stand at 21.1 million, up from 19.2 million."

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