Customers access mobile money transfer services from Tigo Pesa, M-Pesa
and Airtel Money agents at Dar es Salaam’s Tabata Relini area. PHOTO |
FILE
By The Citizen Reporter
In Summary
Mobile money has been growing rapidly over the past
few years, and with 255 services in 89 countries, mobile money is now
available in 61 per cent of developing markets.
Dar es Salaam. The world has more than 100
million mobile money users, a study by the Groupe Special Mobile
Association (GSMA) shows.
Mobile money has been growing rapidly over the
past few years, and with 255 services in 89 countries, mobile money is
now available in 61 per cent of developing markets.
Mobile network operators (MNOs) have led in the
provision of 149 of these services, demonstrating the important and
growing role they are playing in the development of the mobile money
industry.
In Tanzania, Kenya, Madagascar and Uganda there
are more mobile money accounts than traditional bank accounts, and in 25
countries around the world there are more than 10 times as many mobile
money agents as bank branches, it says.
The latest GSMA’s ‘Mobile Financial Services State
of the Industry Report’ shows that over 50 per cent of all MNOs have
already launched a mobile money service. By December 2014, 23 per cent
of all mobile connections were linked with a mobile money account in
Sub-Saharan Africa.
“As this report demonstrates, mobile financial
services have an important social and economic impact on millions of
people in emerging markets around the world,” said GSMA chief regulatory
officer Tom Phillips.
Mobile money continues to transform the way people
access financial services. In three-quarters of the markets where
mobile money is available, agent outlets outnumber bank branches and in
25 markets, there are more than 10 times as many mobile money agents as
bank branches.
The report shows that the number of active mobile
money users continues to grow rapidly year-on-year, with more than 100
million accounts active as of December 2014, compared with 73 million in
December 2013, demonstrating the significant traction that mobile money
is gaining globally.
As mobile money becomes a core service offering
for MNOs, increased competition and customer demand has led to greater
interest in the development of account-to-account interoperability.
Between 2014 -2015, operators in Tanzania Pakistan and Sri Lanka
interconnected their services to allow their customers to send money
directly to mobile wallets on other networks, following in the footsteps
of operators in Indonesia, where interoperability was implemented in
2013. Operators in other markets have also committed to interconnect
their services, paving the way for the creation of a ubiquitous digital
services ecosystem. Take the case of Tigo Tanzania which has
interconnected three operators in the market: Vodacom, Airtel and
Zantel. “Tigo Pesa customers now have access to Africa’s first universal
mobile money exchange system. They will be able to safely and securely
send to and receive money from their respective mobile money wallets
with over 12 million people across the country,” said Tigo’s outgoing
general manager Diego Gutierrez.
“If you are an M-Pesa farmer and want to buy tools
supplied by a Tigo Pesa customer in [Kariakoo/Dar es Salaam], this new
service will be an ideal payment mechanism. Following the success of the
service with Airtel and Zantel, we hope many more Tanzanians will
choose mobile money so that everyone benefits and we can extend
financial inclusion even further.”
By allowing consumers to transfer money across
networks, mobile financial services can achieve meaningful adoption.
Consumers won’t have to work around the system by signing up for
different services and carrying around different SIM cards.
“Mobile is a key enabling tool for financial inclusion,” Mr Gutierrez said.
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