Mobile Money - Afrikan Heroes

Mobile Money Platforms in Africa Attracts Global Attention.

November 24, 2019

The fast paced growth of mobile money platforms in Africa is attracting global attention. While the continent lacks the broadband connectivity and internet penetration obtainable in the developed economies of the world, the rapid adoption of mobile phones has drawn the global attention, for example, Africa has 122 million active mobile money accounts which accounts for nearly half of all global mobile money subscribers. While this presents huge economic and social opportunities for growth, it however, is not without its downsides, as the continent is exposed to immense risk. Recent data found that mobile malware attacks in Africa doubled in volume in 2018, targeting the 456 million mobile subscribers across the continent.

Hisham Hendi, Managing Director, Vodacom Tanzania

To this end, key representatives from over eight countries in Africa gathered at a workshop organized by Vodacom to look into trends and developments shaping the mobile money industry in Africa. Leading telecom company Vodacom also released its Future-Proofing Mobile Financial Services report at the workshop. The report, the first of Vodacom’s Public Policy Series, demonstrates how mobile money is driving economic growth and empowering lives through financial inclusion.

Managing Executive, Legal and regulatory from Vodacom Group, Judith Obholzer, said that Sub- Saharan Africa has witnessed rapid growth in mobile money operations and innovations enabling broad based participation and access to financial services. Sub-Saharan Africa is home to the 10 economies worldwide where more adults now have mobile money accounts than at a financial institution. A game changer in this region, Mobile Money continues to drive economic growth and social benefit by providing access to financial services to the millions of people who have a mobile phone, but do not have or have only limited access to a bank account.

“Our aim is to provide a platform for leading experts to express their views on trends and developments shaping the industry. The industry continues to evolve at a rapid pace with policy makers and regulators playing a central role in facilitating and enabling environment for financial inclusion,” said Ms. Obholzer.

Representative of the Bank of Tanzania who is Assistant Manager–Oversight and Policy at the National Payment systems Department, Mr. Albert Cesari underscored the important impact Mobile Financial Services have made on the economy and the important role of the workshop in ensuring sustainability of the mobile financial service industry.

“The government is committed to ensure that mobile financial providers continue to be effective players in the future, and that they are able to provide the innovations and investments necessary in the technical and business dynamics in the financial payment market.” Cesari explained.

M-Pesa has been Africa’s most successful mobile money service. Research illustrates that mobile money has significantly contributed to social empowerment, economic growth and poverty reduction. It provides people with a safe, secure and affordable way to send and receive money, top-up airtime, make bill payments, receive salaries and get a short-term loan.

Speaking during the launch of the new research on mobile money, Hisham Hendi, Managing Director, Vodacom Tanzania said “Mobile money – supported by extensive mobile reach – has proven to be a platform for economic opportunity, transforming the financial services landscape, in particular on the African continent.” Mr. Hendi added “I am glad that this report brings together contributions by leading experts that speak to these three broader themes. They are diverse in their views and ambitions, critical and inspiring.”

The event brought together representatives from mobile network operators and a cross section of sectors including Telecommunication, financial service providers, banking, CSO and regulators who addressed various topics including: Future-proofing Mobile Financial Services, Enabling Interoperability Frameworks – Payment Systems, Regional Integration and Cross-Border Opportunities, How to solve the legal identity problem, Best Practice Sharing and The Cloud Opportunity – Getting the Conditions Right.

Kelechi Deca

Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry.

MTN gets mobile money licence in Nigeria

July 30, 2019

Group to benefit from efforts to give millions of Nigerians without bank accounts access to financial services.

A subsidiary of MTN Nigeria has been awarded a license by the country’s central bank that would allow it to provide financial services, the telecoms firm said on Monday.

Nigeria announced last year that it would allow telecom companies to provide banking services, aiming to give millions of Nigerians without bank accounts access to mobile money services, a policy that has been successful in Kenya.

SA’s MTN Group, which owns a majority stake in MTN Nigeria, said at the time it would apply for a mobile banking license in Nigeria and planned to launch the service in 2019. Since then, MTN Nigeria listed in Lagos in May in a 2-trillion naira ($5.6bn) debut, which turned it into the exchange’s second-largest stock by market value.

MTN Nigeria’s CEO, Ferdi Moolman, said on Monday its Yello Digital Financial Services (YDFS) unit had been granted a “full super-agent” license by the Central Bank of Nigeria.

“Through the network established by YDFS, MTN is in a position to broaden the availability of financial services for the underserved across the country. This marks a very important first step in leveraging our infrastructure to scale our fintech initiatives,” said Moolman.

“We have also applied for a payment service bank license, which will enable us in time to offer a broader and deeper range of financial services to those communities and we remain hopeful we will receive approval shortly,” he said. He did not give specifics.

MTN runs Nigeria’s biggest mobile phone network serving about 56-million people.

Kelechi Deca

Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry.

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Banks In Nigeria Will No Longer Require Separate License To Operate Mobile Banking

July 16, 2019

Whether it is to reach for more financial inclusion or to open up the heavily regulated Nigerian banking sector, Nigeria’s apex bank is already facing the heat of global digital disruption in the financial services sector. From now on, banks in Nigeria would no longer be required to have a separate license to operate a mobile banking app.

Here Is Why This Change Is Significant

Before now, to operate a mobile money service in Nigeria, the operator shall, among other things be :
(a) Be licensed by the CBN on such terms and conditions as the Central Bank shall desire.

Such terms and conditions usually involve the presentation of evidence of the formation of the Consortium that will deploy the project (Certificate of Incorporation)
The Consortium’s profile and functional contact e-mails and telephone numbers
Securities features that will be put in place
3 years Financial projections for the company
Draft agreements with the following: a. Technical Partners b. Participating banks c. Switching company/(s) 24 d. Merchants e. Telcos f. Any other party
Tax Clearance Certificate for three (3) years of each party in the Consortium
Project Deployment Plan (time, location, operation, etc.)
Payment of non-refundable Application fee of N100,000.00 (One hundred thousand naira) made payable to the CBN
Evidence of Shareholders’ Fund of N2 billion before a license is issued
This document, and may be reviewed from time to time.
Be issued a unique Scheme Code by the NIBSS for managing interoperability.

But all that is about to change

Going forward, once the Central Bank of Nigeria is satisfied that your current license to provide financial services in Nigeria suffices, the need to procure an additional license for your business would be obviated.

“You do not need authorisation from the CBN to go into Wallet services or mobile money schemes. All you need is to notify the CBN your current license suffix,” CBN Department of Banking and Payment System said at the First Bank cross border seminar for Banking and Telecom Regulators from sub-Saharan Africa.

Banks Are Being Reluctant Investing In Mobile Money Because The Heavy Regulations Don’t Make Any Case For Profitability
Many institutions in Nigeria are using prepaid payment cards and the mobile phone as a means of providing financial services to the previously financially excluded.
While not a bank account in the traditional sense, mobile wallets, and prepaid card products provide individuals with a safe electronic store of value and electronically initiated and accepted payment transactions and funds transfers.
In 2015, the CBN published both a Regulatory Framework for Mobile Money Services in Nigeria and Guidelines on Mobile Money Services.
The Regulatory Framework makes provision for only two specific models, namely bank-led, or non-bank led (a corporate organization duly licensed by the CBN).
Mobile money was one of the major segments of the Nigeria e-payment ecosystem primed by the CBN to drive its financial inclusion vision, in which 80 percent of Nigerians will be established in the national banking system by 2020.
However, mobile money operators (MMOs) have had little success in supporting the country’s financial inclusion targets.
This is mostly due to a lack of proper understanding of the conditions of their licenses, limited funds, poor infrastructure in rural areas, and limited customer access due to limited agent network rollouts.
Most of the licensed Mobile Money Operators in Nigeria are believed to have remained inactive and many have yet to officially commence payment platform operations.
Consequently, the CBN took the decision to raise the capital requirements for licenses from N500 million to N1 billion at the end of December 2017 and now to N2 billion, with a caveat that any operator that fails to meet the 1 July 2018 deadline for the new capital requirements will have its licenses revoked, further reducing participation.
The implication of these for Nigerian banks is that from now on, they would no longer be required to have a separate license to operate a mobile banking app.
However, on the other hand, the situation of non-bank led organizations involved in mobile operation remain heavily uncertain, as they may be required to still apply for and obtain licenses.

Cold Feet On Digital Currencies

Expecting Nigeria’s apex bank to adopt cryptocurrencies? This still remains a dream.

The apex bank’s position on the adoption of digital currencies still remains that:

“We [CBN] have not made up our mind on what steps to take but I am not sure or believe that the CBN will ever go crypto.

“We know what they are doing in Sweden and China. We are not running on the same parameter and so based on financial inclusion, adopting digital currency will mean a number of our population will be excluded.”

Charles Rapulu Udoh

Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based Lawyer with special focus on Business Law, Intellectual Property Rights, Entertainment and Technology Law. He is also an award-winning writer. Working for notable organizations so far has exposed him to some of industry best practices in business, finance strategies, law, dispute resolution, and data analytics both in Nigeria and across the world.

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MTN Group Launches Africa’s First Artificial Intelligence Service for Mobile Money

June 8, 2019

MTN Group is not relenting in its quest to fully utilize the power of technology to innovate. The telecommunication company has announced the launch of Africa’s first Mobile Money (MoMo) artificial intelligence service or “chatbot”. In a statement from MTN Group, the chatbot went live in Ivory Coast in May and will be rolled out across MTN’s MoMo footprint in the next few months.

What The New MTN Chatbot Looks Like

Like the Chinese WeChat bots integrated into WeChat app, that can set medical appointments, call a taxi, send money to friends, check in for a flight and many many other, MTN’s artificial intelligence mobile money “assistant” enables customers to engage with MTN’s MoMo services, including payments, on various social media platforms such as WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger, and via SMS.

The chatbot is an artificial intelligence guide that assists users to navigate MTN’s MoMo services and provide other useful information. This innovation leverages messaging and artificial intelligence to drive customer engagement and enhance their MTN MoMo experience.

The service will also be included over time, in MTN’s own newly released advanced instant messaging service “Ayoba”.

***How a Chatbot Works***: *Example of user request analysis.*

Commenting on the launch, MTN Group President and CEO, Rob Shuter said:

“We are passionate about bringing the power of our mobile money solutions to more than 60 million customers across Africa over the next few years. Harnessing modern technologies like artificial intelligence can improve in scale, how MTN interacts with customers, enabling them to reach us anytime and anywhere, through a variety of channels including social networks and messaging applications. We can also harness the power of artificial intelligence to provide our customers with the right answers to their questions at the right time.”

“We are committed to improving financial inclusion with a range of solutions aimed at addressing the needs of various market segments. While MTN has made great strides in these areas, we will continue working to deliver our vision for MTN to become one of the largest Fintech players across our footprint.”

Charles Rapulu Udoh

Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based Lawyer with special focus on Business Law, Intellectual Property Rights, Entertainment and Technology Law. He is also an award-winning writer. Working for notable organizations so far has exposed him to some of industry best practices in business, finance strategies, law, dispute resolution, and data analytics both in Nigeria and across the world.