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people, process, performance
Thursday 8 December 2011
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Tuesday 6 December 2011
Mobile Money: Playing M-PESA catch up
culled from: theafricareport.com
With money only transferable between customers on the same network, the challenge elsewhere has been in building a user base so big that it is impossible to function without signing up.
Rwanda plans to leapfrog the problem by launching a cross-network money transfer system in 2012, which will make it faster to transfer money in Rwanda than in the Netherlands, central bank governor Claver Gatete told [I]The Africa Report[/I].
In Nigeria, regulators have licensed banks to lead the mobile money roll-out by pairing up with a telecom operator.
The test will be whether the operators believe they are getting a good share of the profits.
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Visa Develops Rwanda Payment Network in International Push
Dakin Campbell
culled from: www.mobilemoneyafrica.com
Visa Inc., the world's biggest bank- card network, agreed to help develop Rwanda's payments system and connect the African nation's 11 million citizens to the global economy as the firm pushes to boost non-U.S. revenue.
The company will modernize the nation's payments network under an accord with the government, working with partners to upgrade automated teller machines, install merchant card readers, develop e-commerce capabilities and provide financial education, said Elizabeth Buse, Visa's group president responsible for most business outside the Americas.
"It's absolutely critical that you start with the government if you are going to have the full pyramid of payments services," Buse, 50, said in a phone interview. "Our intent is to take what we are doing in Rwanda and repeat it across" other developing economies, she said.
The project may help Chief Executive Officer Joseph W. Saunders, 66, fulfill his goal of generating more than half of Visa's revenue outside the U.S. by 2015. Last month, the company announced a plan to create prepaid accounts linked to mobile phones across Africa and the Middle East as it aims to capture transactions from so-called unbanked consumers.
Visa chose Rwanda, where 86 percent of the population lacks access to traditional financial services, because of its friendliness toward private enterprise, stable regulatory structure and smaller population, Buse said.
'Economic Growth'
"In all economies, well-developed financial systems are essential for sustained economic growth," National Bank of Rwanda Governor Claver Gatete said in a statement today. "The partnership between the government of Rwanda and Visa is an opportunity to increase efficiency and inclusion through the use of electronic financial services."
Rwanda's economy, recovering from the 1994 genocide that killed about 1 million people in 100 days, is forecast by the central bank to grow 8.8 percent this year. The economy doubled in the nine years through 2010, according to the World Bank.
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice has criticized Rwanda's "comparatively closed" political culture and said the East African nation should take steps to broaden democracy. Restrictions on the media, harassment of activists, opposition figures and journalists as well as the disappearance of some of them pose the "next developmental challenge" for the country, Rice said in a Nov. 23 speech at the Kigali Institute of Science and Technology in the capital.
'Economic Development'
"The deepening and broadening of democracy can be the next great achievement of this great country and its remarkable people," she said. "Economic development and political openness should reinforce each other."
Visa will teach financial literacy in rural communities and to bank and government employees, Buse said. The company also will work with airline RwandAir to develop online ticketing and reservations technology for the national carrier, she said.
"Make no mistake: This is absolutely a commercial activity from our perspective," Buse said. "It is driving more volume and revenue across the Visa network."
The company got 44 percent of revenue from outside the U.S. and processed 50.9 billion transactions valued at $5.87 trillion in the fiscal year ended Sept. 30, according to a statement.
Visa climbed 0.5 percent to $97.71 at noon in New York. It advanced 38 percent this year through last week, the third-best performance in the Standard & Poor's 500 Information Technology Index after Purchase, New York-based MasterCard Inc., the world's second-biggest payments network, and video-game publisher Electronic Arts Inc.
Visa said last month it would roll out prepaid accounts on MTN Group Ltd.'s cellular network for 5.7 million customers across the Middle East and Africa, starting with Nigeria and Uganda. The offering is Visa's first in the region since its $110 million purchase in June of Fundamo, a Cape Town-based provider of mobile-commerce technology in developing countries.
4 Ikosi Road
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Nigerian Bank Nigeria Central Bank Of Nigeria – UBA, Afri Pay Launch 1st Mobile Payment Service
Source Vanguard: November 30, 2011
FOLLOWING the recent grant of licenses to mobile money service providers by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), United Bank for Africa (UBA) in conjunction with its associate company; Afripay Limited, has blazed the trail by being the first of the 11 licensees, to roll out commercially, following the launch of Nigeria's first mobile money service; U-Mo in Lagos on November 24, 2011.
U-Mo which is available to over 90 million mobile phone subscribers irrespective of which network that they are in, is designed to promote savings as well as enable people to carry out financial transactions, including sending and receiving monies from their phones.
It enables phone users to buying airtime for self and for others, pay bills, pay for goods and services in shops and on the internet as well.
Speaking at the launch Group Managing Director/CEO, UBA Plc, Mr. Phillips Oduoza, said the launch of U-Mo is a major step towards realizing the objectives of the 'Cash lite' policy of the CBN.
According to him, "this product is the first in the banking industry in line with the CBN policy and it is going to be a revolution.
"This product is unique as almost any form of transaction can be done through U-Mo" he added.
He commended the CBN for providing the environ-ment for this to happen as it will in no small measure lead to a significant higher levels of financial inclusion given that there are more phones subscribers than account holders.
Also speaking at the event, the MD of Afri-Pay Mr. Yinka Adedeji, disclosed that Afri-Pay will offer three categories of U-Mo Accounts namely; Silver, Gold and Platinum, differentiated by degree of personal information provided by the subscribers.
Specifically, U-Mo Silver is offered for customers with very minimal information (names and mobile number) and it allows them to spend or pay up to N3,000 per transaction and up to N30,000 per day.
Essentially U-Mo Silver enables payment for food, transportation and basic goods, buy airtime for self and family, send and receive money from mobile phones.
U-Mo Gold according to him, is available for customers who are capable of initiating transactions at N10,000 per transaction and up to N100,000 per day.
U-Mo Gold can be used to pay for services of high value including buying local airline tickets, among others. For U-Mo Platinum, he explained that it is designed for customers with information that include address verification and a reference as it allows customers to spend or pay up to N100,000 per transaction and up to N1,000,000 per day.
U-Mo Platinum customers can use their phones to pay for higher services and good including construction materials, international tickets, etc. All of the product offerings are readily available to any Nigerian that has access to mobile phone or mobile phone agents.
U-Mo is available to UBA and non UBA customers. Adedeji stated that "customers with accounts in any bank are encouraged to sign up for U-Mo as they will be able to easily load money from their bank account into U-Mo and move money received on U-Mo account into their bank accounts.
U-Mo makes banking available for everyone, including traders, okada riders, transporters, casual workers, "he added.
Nigerian Bank Nigeria Central Bank Of Nigeria
4 Ikosi Road
Ikosi-Ketu Lagos-Nigeria234 805 783 8282
234 806 361 2572
234 809 514 5111
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Mobile Union launches online money transfer for Nigerians in London
Written by Ibrahim Chonoko, London Saturday, 03 December 2011 05:00
A UK-based company, Mobile Union Ltd has launched an online money transfer service that offers "flexible and convenient service" to people wishing to send money to Nigeria.
Known as MT Xpress, the service also promises to offer "secure, instant and confidential money transfer between the UK and Nigeria at anytime".
Speaking at a press briefing in London, Mobile Union co-founder, Steven Faulkner said the company's global technology platform and the extensive branch network of its Nigerian ally, Equatorial Trust Bank (ETB), ensures that "money can be sent to the heart of communities across Nigeria within seconds".
"We want to establish MT Xpress as the provider of choice for people sending money home to Nigeria. Our low fees means that MT Xpress offers great value, especially for smaller transactions", he added.
Mr Faulkner said the service, which is regulated by UK's Financial Services Authority (FSA) and approved by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) offers bank-grade security and allows customers to send money online or make account-to-account transfers without the need to visit a location-based retailer.
He, however, explained that to use the service, customers must register with the company to authenticate the identity of the senders so as to guard against fraud, stressing that after registration, customers would now be able to send money using their debit cards or any online banking service offered by UK banks.
He further explained that all transactions are automatically tracked online, and money would only be released to the beneficiary after identity authentication and transaction verification at ETB branches, and expressed Mobile Union's intention to provide Nigeria to UK remittance service to provide an avenue for sending money to thousands of Nigerian students in the UK.
Also speaking, Mr Winston Bell-Gam, who is also a co-founder of the company said, "Nigeria is one of the world's top receivers of remittances", adding that with millions of people in the country using mobile phones, "there is an opportunity for using technology to promote financial inclusion and build links between members of the Diaspora and community projects in their home country."
Mobile Union Ltd has been operating MT Xpress service in Bangladesh and Nepal since March 2010, and the launch of the service for Nigeria "aims to bring the same speedy, secure service combined with a strong corporate social responsibility mandate to Africa", Bell-Gam added.
4 Ikosi Road
Ikosi-Ketu Lagos-Nigeria234 805 783 8282
234 806 361 2572
234 809 514 5111
234 807 070 8795
234 805 844 9177
Mobile Money: The opportunities and challenges in Nigeria (Part 2)
http://www.nigeriaplus.com
A few weeks ago I published an article about the opportunities and challenges of Mobile Money (MM) in Nigeria and I received a lot of correspondence supporting many of my assertions and in some cases pointing to other challenges I did not include. The earlier article focused on four major issues, which I felt if addressed adequately would go a long way towards assuring the success of the MM initiative in Nigeria. In this current piece, some additional challenges are discussed and the role of the government is once again emphasized, since it has a direct influence on how successful mobile money services in Nigeria can be, especially given how it supports the cash management goals of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
One important issue concerns the branding of mobile money services and their use of exclusive independent agents. From an agency training or transaction processing perspective it makes sense to have exclusive MM agents who are only involved in relationships with single mobile money providers and their customers. However for the service to really take off and be used by a substantial mass of people it has to get beyond that to a type of shared services arrangement with non-exclusive agents who are free to serve multiple MM service providers. This will be similar to the role played by recharge card resellers, who typically sell cards for all major phone services.
Can you imagine a situation where a reseller only sold one Mobile Network Operator's (MNO) recharge cards? Restricting agents to only one MM service provider increases the cost of agent acquisition to the providers, reduces the reach of the services to customers, lengthens the time for educating consumers on the services, and generally increases the costs of acquiring each new customer.
From a customer standpoint non-exclusivity helps to make the services more competitive thereby driving better service and encouraging innovation. Agencies can also be bigger, employ more people, have bigger float and better security as their location dictates. This is similar to the service offered by 7-eleven stores in the U.S. and U.K., where they provide money transfer services via multiple companies at their locations. The fact is that success in Nigeria will be better assured when stakeholders share key learnings and collaborate more on important initiatives that reduce their costs and promote mobile money services in general.
Another important issue is that of the technology application utilized by the mobile money service providers. This I found through my actual real world tests of most of the MM services currently running in Nigeria. To my surprise I found that one of the more aggressive and particularly alluring MM service providers did not currently use either an STK (Sim Application Toolkit) or USSD (Unstructured Service Supplementary Data) application which are more reliably used for MM services, but rather used SMS and automated voice.
On this particular service, a nomadic person with money in their mobile wallet unfortunately cannot use it to recharge a phone that has zero call credits since an SMS cannot be initiated from the phone. This issue highlights the importance of involving the CBN and the Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC) in negotiations to ensure that the MM service providers get equal access at reasonable rates to Mobile Network Operators (MNO) systems. At this technology junction, it is unreasonable to expect any service not using STK or USSD applications to make any sustainable impact in the marketplace since those are the two most widely applicable mobile technologies that work on most phones, particularly the low-end units popular with unbanked customers.
A third concern is that of network reliability and interoperability, particularly as it pertains to the speed of money transfers across networks. This concern is directly tied to the fact that although the CBN framework does not provide for the MNOs to have a lead role in the provision of MM service and is explicit in not providing MNOs mobile money licenses, the impression viewers get when they watch some of the mobile money television commercials of a leading mobile network operator in Nigeria might suggest otherwise.
This issue directly concerns the other players in the ecosystem, who fear that their transactions may be given lower priority on the networks of MNOs actively promoting their own services, whether or not the service is within the CBN's operating framework. This issue has to be resolved to provide clarity since success in the open scheme practiced in Nigeria requires a reliable and consistent flow of transactions from one end to the other regardless of MM service provider.
The fourth issue is one of education about the safety and security of the mobile money service. It should be communicated very clearly to prospective users that strong controls are in place to prevent fraud and theft of money stored in mobile wallets. In addition, they should be clearly informed of the steps to take in the event their mobile handsets got lost or stolen. Recently published results of a survey conducted in Nigeria by Institute for Money, Technology and Financial Inclusion (IMTFI) indicated that respondents ranked concerns around fraud and theft much higher than fears of technology failure or ease of use.
This observation implies that MM providers should focus their education and promotion exercises on the security and safety of the service, rather than mainly on the conveniences MM services brings to consumers lives. The fact is it is easy to tell people what they can do with MM services, they can understand that rather quickly; the challenge is to prove to them that they can do all that safer and more securely than they are currently doing. Doing this well will make the difference between success and that, which is not.
Finally, the CBN needs to do a better job of promoting mobile money services. While it frequently talks about its cashless initiative, it appears to make little reference to the services that will help it achieve that end. Point-of-sale terminals are only useful to people using mobile money and card services for payments. It will serve them well if they made more frequent and explicit connections to the role MM and card services have to play for them to achieve their stated cash management goals.
Franklin Chidi, PhD is a telecommunications finance expert. He has been a senior management employee of AT&T Inc. in the USA for the last 12 years and prior to that was in commercial and investment banking organizations. Email at dr.fchidi@gmail.com
4 Ikosi Road
Ikosi-Ketu Lagos-Nigeria234 805 783 8282
234 806 361 2572
234 809 514 5111
234 807 070 8795
234 805 844 9177
MTN flays CBN’s m-payment policy
By 01/12/2011 00:00:00
MTN Nigeria has faulted the regulatory framework of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on the implementation of mobile payment system.
Mobile payment or m-payment is a point-of-sale payment made from or via a mobile device. Using m-payment, a person with a mobile phone could pay for goods and services without interacting with a human.
The CBN regulatory framework for operating the system identifies three major models for its implementation. They are bank-focused model, which can only be deployed by a licensed deposit-taking financial institution and bank-led model, where a bank or a consortium of banks, in partnership with other organisations, jointly delivers banking services.
The third is a non-bank-led model which allows a corporate organisation, other than a licensed deposit money bank and telecommunications companies, to deliver mobile payment services.
Speaking at a capacity-building seminar in Lagos, a regulatory official at MTN, Kassim Odumbaku said though the CBN's regulatory framework expressly excludes Telcos from leadership of mobile payment implementation, MTN has provided the necessary technological platform and made substantial investments towards the achievement of a robust, dynamic and secure mobile payment system in Nigeria.
Odumbaku noted that in other countries where m-payments have been successfully deployed, Telcos took the lead role.
He said: "In Kenya, Safaricom, a Telco, launched M-PESA in 2007 after two years of trial. M-PESA is so far, the most successful mobile payment product with over 25 per cent of Kenya's population registered for the service. It now has over 10 million users and transfers about $350million per month.
"In the Philippines, SMART, a Telco launched the 'Padala' in 2004. The service now has about seven million wallets representing seven per cent penetration.
"In Uganda, MTN launched the mobile money service in 2009. Within a year, the service recorded over 500,000 mobile money accounts.
"Vodacom in Tanzania too launched the M-Pesa service in 2008 and in mid-2010, about one million accounts had been opened.
"Nigeria has the potential of being the largest mobile payment market in Africa if stakeholders take the opportunity to review the current framework, so as to more fully enhance the capability of the telecom industry to play its natural role in the delivery of efficient mobile payment services, leveraging on technological infrastructure and distribution chain."
The CBN, in the framework, said while it appreciates the critical role of the Telcos in all of the models for the implementation of mobile payments services in Nigeria, the Telcos are explicitly excluded from leading any such models for the following reasons: ensuring that the regulatory gaps/lapses that could occur with a telecom organisation running a mobile payments solution is nullified till a time when the regulatory issues between the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and CBN are regulated.
"To ensure openness and interoperability via monitoring that the Telcos concentrate on their area of core competence as mobile operators (carriers of traffic) and not attempt to become payment service providers.
"To ensure that larger networks are not given undue advantage based on their wide coverage, thereby excluding other payment service providers from access to their customer base; also to ensure that all mobile payments traffic are given equal priority during transmission by the Telcos without prejudice to their own consumer-generated traffic."
4 Ikosi Road
Ikosi-Ketu Lagos-Nigeria234 805 783 8282
234 806 361 2572
234 809 514 5111
234 807 070 8795
234 805 844 9177
sludba TECH NEWS: The fresh ideas that can help save our world
Climate change, ageing, joblessness, a healthcare crisis: tomorrow is a tangle of problems. The solution may lie not in politics, but in a 'social innovation' movement that is generating groundbreaking ideas
Gdynia, near Gdansk, does not compare to San Francisco or Shanghai as one of the great urban centres of ideas and invention. But last month it was giving both cities a good run for their money when it came to buzz and intellectual energy.
This former fishing village in Poland, now a city of 250,000 people, was chosen to host the first international winter school in social innovation, which attracted 70 experts from all corners of the globe, including Korea, the Netherlands, Nigeria, Australia and the UK. All were seeking new, creative solutions to the increasingly serious social challenges of our times. Some were looking to solve problems relating to health; others were exercised by the problem of wealth (or rather the lack of it). Youth joblessness was a theme, as was ageing. No profit motive was attached or product pitch involved. This was just people offering ingenuity and services.
The passion for social innovation is not new. But, as the success of the event in Gdynia demonstrated, an exponential rise in interest seems to be taking place, partly because of the impact of the internet and partly because government coffers are running empty and some of the bigger challenges appear intractable. Often, successful innovation means the addition of a new ingredient to what is already familiar. The arrival of television, for example, plus long-distance learning, created the Open University. Add cars to older people in need of a regular lunch, and meals on wheels is born. Hospices, charity shops, the Samaritans, the Boy Scouts and Girl Guides are all examples of social innovation that eventually became part of the nation's furniture.
The first three-day summer international school for social innovation was held in 2008 in San Sebastián in the Basque country. It was organised, among others, by the Young Foundation, Cisco and the Social Innovation Exchange, which allows social innovators around the world to exchange ideas. But Gdynia represented the movement's first foray into the winter months.
In a former wartime Messerschmitt factory, now converted into an innovation centre, the group of 70 came together to assess what's coming round the corner in 2015 and how best we can all cope. The immediate impression was that coping would involve the use of a lot of Post-it notes.
Jim Dator, an expert in futurology (who also acknowledges that almost everything foretold is bound to be wrong – rights for robots and paperless offices instantly come to mind) is fond of saying that, for any prediction to come true, it must first sound ridiculous.
Hence, several years ago, when Gorka Espiau, one of the those in Gdynia, and his colleagues at DenokInn, the Basque Social Centre for Innovation in Bilbao, first began to collaborate with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a group of videogame designers on a low-cost folding electric car that opens from the front (so a wheelchair-user can roll in), is "driven" via a laptop by a motorist of any age and ability, and can store secrets about the way we behave (for instance, the vehicle can be programmed not to exceed 50mph), the plan probably sounded too daft for words.
Several million euros later, Hiriko, meaning "from the city" in Basque, launches next month, in Berlin, Malmö, Barcelona, San Francisco and Quito in Ecuador (London missed out).
Espiau says that the car is low-cost, around €12,000 and it will be rented out by the hour at a low rate, but whoever wants you parked in their forecourt – supermarket, cinema or optician – also foots the leasing charge. It will be small-scale in production, with factories sited in areas of high unemployment. So in Malmö, Sweden, according to Espiau, there is 90% unemployment among the largest population of Iraqis living outside their home country. Now a number of them will work on Hiriko.
"This isn't just about a car," says Espiau. "This is about bringing together people from very different professions, architecture, videogames, the web, who are driven by the belief that the poorest can be mobile; even the long-term out-of-work can have jobs. Social innovation sometimes means nice people losing money. Hiriko will show we can make social change."
Some of the original attendees of San Sebastián in 2008 were also at this first winter school. They were told by Geoff Mulgan, chief executive of Nesta, the organisation that promotes social innovation in the UK, that the challenges have not changed in the last four years, only their scale.
In many parts of the world, people are living longer, but spending more of their final years in poorer health. Health and social care is eating into national budgets. So how, for instance, will new social media and different services and organisations help to ride to the rescue on a range of issues such as education?
Femi Longe, based in Nigeria, tells us that 10 years ago the country had only 866,000 telephone lines. Now, in a population of 116 million, there are 88 million mobile subscribers – mostly young people. His newly established Co-Creation Hub, independent from government, is working on 16 different ventures. They include apps that will tell citizens about their constitutional rights (Your Rights in Your Pocket), apps to help students with study, and apps to encourage greater transparency and less corruption in the government's budget (BudgeIT).
In Gdynia, we heard how a partnership between food companies Danone and Lubella, supermarket chain Biedrinka, and the Institute of Mother and Child in Warsaw had produced a breakfast porridge offering 25% of a child's daily vitamins and minerals, costing a few pence and cleverly marketed for "supermums of all income groups". Since its launch in 2006, 50 million portions of Mleczny Start (Milky Start) have been sold, 27% to Poland's poorest families. Profit goes back into promotion. "One bright idea doesn't solve the causes of infant malnutrition," said one of the team, "but at least it gives a child a better start."
Simon Tucker, chief executive of the Young Foundation, said: "Social innovation is the only way to build a future we might actually want to live in. Even after the current financial crisis, challenges such as ageing populations and climate change mean we just cannot continue as we are with minor improvements. Social innovation is a more constructive response than protest, more active than trusting in technocrats – we are together taking responsibility for shaping our future and our children's future."
Yvonne Roberts is a fellow of the Young Foundation
Social innovation around the world
Check You Out!
UsCreates, a design company headed by Zoe Stanton and Mary Rose Cook, worked with the Prince's Trust, Empire Cinemas, Birmingham East and North primary care trust and 60 young people, including 30 selected as "youth ambassadors", in Birmingham to devise a campaign to improve testing for chlamydia. It is the most common sexually transmitted infection in young people, affecting one in 12, and has no symptoms.
At Gdynia, Mary Rose explained how the young people tackled the lack of knowledge and stigma. They came up with the slogan Check You Out!, used themselves as the "face" of the campaign; designed orange wrist bands, offered a free cinema screening with a health trainer in the lavatories who rewarded young people who took the urine test with free popcorn and a soft drink, which achieved a 100% testing rate.
The young people also set up a Facebook page – Check You Out! It now has more than 5,000 followers; they entered a film-making competition and designed billboards and postcards using the ambassadors to push home the message that screening matters. The 12-month strategy has won several awards, including the Best of Health Awards 2010.
Hello Sunday Morning
In 2008, Craig Raine, aged 24, who lives in Brisbane, decided to say goodbye to his habitual Sunday morning hangover and try sobriety for a year. "I wanted to know why I drank and what my motivation was to do it and what it would take to influence the way other people looked at [drinking]. Nobody thought I'd last the 12 months," he said. Hello Sunday Morning was born.
It consists of a website, to which people sign up and pledge not to drink for three months. They blog their progress. Research into behaviour change tells us a public pledge reinforces resolve. Raine resumed drinking after 12 months. "It's part of life," he says, "but Hello Sunday Morning is about when it becomes a problem, when you depend upon it psychologically to have certain experiences or fun."
In 2010, the Australian Centre for Social Innovation, established the year before, selected Hello Sunday Morning as one of eight projects and schemes chosen from 258 ideas contributed from all over Australia, to fund and support.
Hello Sunday Morning has been hugely popular, especially among younger people. The target this year is for it to reach 10,000 supporters and then become a worldwide movement towards a better drinking culture. "I signed up to HSM," says Brenton Caffin, head of Centre for Social Innovation. "I didn't have a problem with alcohol but I wanted to see if I could do it. It worked for me."
The Kafka Brigade
Originally established in the Netherlands in the 1990s, the Kafka Brigade now has a UK counterpart in Wales. Its aim is to reduce red tape and regulations and bureaucratic dysfunction. Frontline workers, the public, managers and policymakers are all required to take part, to analyse what's wrong and to come up with a solution.
Some solutions are simple. For instance, in 2007 in Amsterdam, 37,000 people were leaving prison only to reoffend and be involved in petty crime, because of homelessness, delays in receiving benefits and unemployment. The Kafka project meant that prisoners begin applying for benefits before their release; are better supported to find jobs; and homeless ex-offenders are a target cohort for special housing support.
The Kafka Brigade UK has also helped to reduce the numbers of young people not in employment education or training (Neets)in Cardiff and Swansea. In 2010, Swansea was recognised as showing one of the two most improved performances in Wales for supporting Neets. A review published this year described the Kafka Brigade contribution as "a valuable process that helped clarify performance indicators, rationalised the action plan and led to individuals and organisations taking more responsibility for reducing the proportion of young people not in employment education or training".
The Kafka Brigade is a partner with the thinktank Kennisland (Knowledgeland), headed by Chris Sigaloff.
The Water Hackathon
The Water Hackathon took place over two days in October simultaneously in Bangalore, Cairo, Kampala, Lima, London, Nairobi, Tel Aviv and Washington DC.
Lack of adequate safe water and sanitation is the world's single largest cause of illness, responsible for more than two million deaths a year. As the global population grows, and demands on natural resources increase, the sustainable management of water is ever more urgent.
Technologists, engineers, programmers, designers, water experts and people with ideas worked together over one weekend to come up with solutions. At the Co-creation Hub in Lagos, represented at the winter school in Gdynia by Femi Longe, a co-founder, 32 people worked together, as part of Random Hacks of Kindness. The group came up with a number of ideas, including mobile phone games to educate Nigerians on the use of water; a mobile system to name and shame companies whose packaging clogs the drainage system the most and a mobile tool to crowdsource (encourage the public to become citizen watchdogs) and track burst pipes and leakages across the system and get them fixed quickly .
The challenge is turning ideas into concrete projects and scaling them up, but companies such as Microsoft and organisations like the World Bank are investing: they see new markets in the global population explosion.
4 Ikosi Road
Ikosi-Ketu Lagos-Nigeria234 805 783 8282
234 806 361 2572
234 809 514 5111
234 807 070 8795
234 805 844 9177
U-Mo another mobile money solution in Nigeria
www.aboukone.com
According to Nigeria's Business Day, another mobile money solution has been launched, directly competing with Paga, the startup i wrote about earlier. Dubbed U-Mo, this initiative is a joint venture between United Bank for Africa and AfriPay and targets Nigeria's 90 million mobile phone subscribers. The Central Bank of Nigeria recent push for a Cashless Nigeria has led it to start giving out mobile money licenses, of which UBA is a receptor.
U-Mo works across carriers and allows users to send and receive money and pay for goods and services using their mobile phones. Security is similar to Paga, which daily transaction limits placed on users based on their level of authentication with the service. 30% of Nigeria's population is banked, creating a gap of about 55-65 millions unbanked Nigerians with mobile phones providing a good market for mobile money services. UBA introduced a minimum N25,000 ($155) account balance in its banking system and will transfer customers who fall under that threshold to the mobile platform, without a doubt in order to create a customer base.
UBA also received a $1 million grant from Elfina to develop a savings platform savings platform on the U-MO service with the value proposition for customers been an interest on their deposits. A definitely worthy initiative if implemented correctly. It is good to see another entry in the mobile money market in Nigeria, and I am specially encouraged by the Cashless Nigeria initiative which should be duplicated in other African countries to complement the growth of mobile technology in Africa. The numbers are there, which means that the market is there.
4 Ikosi Road
Ikosi-Ketu Lagos-Nigeria234 805 783 8282
234 806 361 2572
234 809 514 5111
234 807 070 8795
234 805 844 9177
U-MO: UBA, AfriPay Launch Mobile Money Services, to Target 90 Million Phone Users
culled from: www.infomister.com
Buoyed by the immense prospects of providing basic financial services through the mobile phones to millions of Nigerians in urban and rural communities, United Bank for Africa (UBA) has rolled out its mobile money service targeted at over 90 million mobile phone users.
Speaking at the launch ceremony held in Lagos at the weekend, Phillip Oduoza, group managing director, UBA, said the introduction of the service reaffirms the company's commitment to the Central Bank of Nigeria 's (CBN) policy geared towards moving Nigeria into the cashless economy.
Following the recent grant of licenses to mobile money service providers by the CBN, UBA in conjunction with its associate company; Afripay Limited, has become one of the first of the 11 licensees, to roll out commercially its mobile money service dubbed U-Mo in Lagos . U-Mo which is available to mobile phone subscribers, irrespective of which network that they are currently using, is strategically designed to promote savings as well as enable people to carry out financial transactions, including sending and receiving monies from their phones. It enables phone users to buying airtime for self and for others, pay bills, pay for goods and services in shops and on the internet as well.
With majority of Nigeria 's adult population never been banked, and a meagre 30 percent of the adult population with a bank account, Oduoza argued that the pain still resides in the neck of banks to seek ways to foster financial inclusion and aid the unbanked. "We have over 80 million connected telephone lines while only 25 million Nigerians have bank account, leaving a major gap of about 55 million. U-Mo is going to address that by providing banking services to unbanked Nigerians. They can also transfer money to any mobile number, spend the money directly from their mobile phones to pay for goods and services." According to the UBA GMD, level of required documentation is so low that the 'mobile bank account' can be opened in merely five minutes.
Oduoza pointed out that following the introduction of a minimum account balance of N25, 000 by the bank, customers whose accounts balances are below the minimum threshold will be migrating to the mobile money platform. U-Mo, according to him is being done through the various branch offices of UBA where the respective accounts are domiciled, in a simplified process, devoid of any hassles, providing customers with more convenience and access compared to brick and mortar based services.
Alluding to universality of the solution, irrespective of social and economic class, the GMD revealed that the bank had received $1 million grant from Elfina to develop a savings platform on the U-MO service with the value proposition for customers been an interest on their deposits.
The mobile money service, according to Oduoza is meant to enhance the CBN 'Cash-lite' banking initiative and reduce cost of banking operations in the country, adding that the whole essence is to store money in a telephone at a cheaper rate as well as send and receive funds from any part of the country.
"With this service, a subscriber does not have to have a bank account before performing banking and other financial services. "People can store money in their phones and use it to do business. This is a major step towards realising the 'cash-lite' initiative of the Central Bank of Nigeria . Today, banking penetration still remains low. Yinka Adedeji, chief executive officer, Afripay, revealed that U-Mo provides higher level of security than cards, given that it only requires your four-digit Personal Identification Number (PIN) and possession of your mobile phone to perform any operation.
Adedeji said that U-Mo Mobile money is available to all mobile subscribers irrespective of their mobile service provider. He also said it can be used by people with or without bank accounts in UBA. Adedeji disclosed that in order to ensure that all customer segments are covered, a number of products have been introduced by Afri-Pay. These products include U-Mo Silver for customers with very little information. It allows them to spend or pay up to N3, 000.00 per transaction and up to N30, 000.00 per day. U-Mo Gold, for customers with contact information and details.
A U-Mo Gold customer is allowed to spend or pay up to N10, 000 per transaction and up to N100, 000.00 per day. U-Mo Platinum for the more sophisticated customers who are allowed to spend or pay up to N100, 000 per transaction and up to N1, 000,000 per day. To qualify for U-Mo Platinum, you have to provide detailed information including a verified address and a reference. U-Mo is available to UBA and non UBA customers. Adedeji stated that "customers with accounts in any bank are encouraged to sign up for U-Mo as they will be able to easily load money from their bank account into U-Mo and move money received on U-Mo account into their bank accounts. U-Mo now makes banking available for everyone, including traders, okada riders, transporters, casual workers, "he added.
Buoyed by the immense prospects of providing basic financial services through the mobile phones to millions of Nigerians in urban and rural communities, United Bank for Africa (UBA) has rolled out its mobile money service targeted at over 90 million mobile phone users.
Speaking at the launch ceremony held in Lagos at the weekend, Phillip Oduoza, group managing director, UBA, said the introduction of the service reaffirms the company's commitment to the Central Bank of Nigeria 's (CBN) policy geared towards moving Nigeria into the cashless economy.
Following the recent grant of licenses to mobile money service providers by the CBN, UBA in conjunction with its associate company; Afripay Limited, has become one of the first of the 11 licensees, to roll out commercially its mobile money service dubbed U-Mo in Lagos . U-Mo which is available to mobile phone subscribers, irrespective of which network that they are currently using, is strategically designed to promote savings as well as enable people to carry out financial transactions, including sending and receiving monies from their phones. It enables phone users to buying airtime for self and for others, pay bills, pay for goods and services in shops and on the internet as well.
With majority of Nigeria 's adult population never been banked, and a meagre 30 percent of the adult population with a bank account, Oduoza argued that the pain still resides in the neck of banks to seek ways to foster financial inclusion and aid the unbanked. "We have over 80 million connected telephone lines while only 25 million Nigerians have bank account, leaving a major gap of about 55 million. U-Mo is going to address that by providing banking services to unbanked Nigerians. They can also transfer money to any mobile number, spend the money directly from their mobile phones to pay for goods and services." According to the UBA GMD, level of required documentation is so low that the 'mobile bank account' can be opened in merely five minutes.
Oduoza pointed out that following the introduction of a minimum account balance of N25, 000 by the bank, customers whose accounts balances are below the minimum threshold will be migrating to the mobile money platform. U-Mo, according to him is being done through the various branch offices of UBA where the respective accounts are domiciled, in a simplified process, devoid of any hassles, providing customers with more convenience and access compared to brick and mortar based services.
Alluding to universality of the solution, irrespective of social and economic class, the GMD revealed that the bank had received $1 million grant from Elfina to develop a savings platform on the U-MO service with the value proposition for customers been an interest on their deposits.
The mobile money service, according to Oduoza is meant to enhance the CBN 'Cash-lite' banking initiative and reduce cost of banking operations in the country, adding that the whole essence is to store money in a telephone at a cheaper rate as well as send and receive funds from any part of the country.
"With this service, a subscriber does not have to have a bank account before performing banking and other financial services. "People can store money in their phones and use it to do business. This is a major step towards realising the 'cash-lite' initiative of the Central Bank of Nigeria . Today, banking penetration still remains low. Yinka Adedeji, chief executive officer, Afripay, revealed that U-Mo provides higher level of security than cards, given that it only requires your four-digit Personal Identification Number (PIN) and possession of your mobile phone to perform any operation.
Adedeji said that U-Mo Mobile money is available to all mobile subscribers irrespective of their mobile service provider. He also said it can be used by people with or without bank accounts in UBA. Adedeji disclosed that in order to ensure that all customer segments are covered, a number of products have been introduced by Afri-Pay. These products include U-Mo Silver for customers with very little information. It allows them to spend or pay up to N3, 000.00 per transaction and up to N30, 000.00 per day. U-Mo Gold, for customers with contact information and details.
A U-Mo Gold customer is allowed to spend or pay up to N10, 000 per transaction and up to N100, 000.00 per day. U-Mo Platinum for the more sophisticated customers who are allowed to spend or pay up to N100, 000 per transaction and up to N1, 000,000 per day. To qualify for U-Mo Platinum, you have to provide detailed information including a verified address and a reference. U-Mo is available to UBA and non UBA customers. Adedeji stated that "customers with accounts in any bank are encouraged to sign up for U-Mo as they will be able to easily load money from their bank account into U-Mo and move money received on U-Mo account into their bank accounts. U-Mo now makes banking available for everyone, including traders, okada riders, transporters, casual workers, "he added.
4 Ikosi Road
Ikosi-KetuLagos-Nigeria234 805 783 8282 234 806 361 2572 234 809 514 5111
234 807 070 8795234 805 844 9177
MobileMoney: Getting it right the first time in Nigeria.
Emmanuel Okoegwale
Principal Associate – MobileMoneyAfrica.
Judge designate at the GSMA Global awards in the Best Mobile Money Innovation category, Febuary 2012 in Barcelona.
With the recent launch of commercial mobile money services in Nigeria by the licensed mobile financial services providers, the country is finally joining other developing nations where mobile financial services is changing the way citizens access basic financial services, banking, payment and other allied services via the mobile channel.
Mobilemoney services is gaining ground and positioning as mainstream channel alongside the formal Bank branches, internet and cards.Mpesa, Africa's leading mobile financial services provider, now processes more transactions in Kenya than Western Union does, globally.
Orange Money recently announced three million active customers on the platform across Africa, Fundamo and Visa are jointly deploying card services that are targeted at developing nations. Some months ago, Airtel and MasterCard deployed similar products in markets across Africa.
Despite all the mentions of licensing, deployments, collaborations and announcements, many mobile financial services are still struggling to get off the ground across Africa from Libya to Zimbabwe. The providers are still struggling to understand the needs of the customer and provision services that will address the strong compelling needs of the end users.
MPESA was designed to disburse loans and repayments in Kenya but the reality of the market changed the product directions to suit the needs of the Eastern African country with strong internal migration and limited formal Bank branches which provided the opportunity for mobile money transfer to strive alongside the strong brand equity of the parent company, safaricom.
Is this feat achievable elsewhere in Africa? The answer is yes if the service meets the strong compelling need of the end user. Same product, process and people achieved little success in same region where MPESA excelled.
To gain traction and deliver value in the mobile financial services ecosystem in Nigeria, stakeholders must put resources together, share information and work in a sustainable manner in areas like agency network roll out and MNO network access.
Designing the right products.
Despite the convenience factor that is always associated with mobile financial services, it depends on the scale of ease of use that it delivers against other existing channels. For a savvy urban dweller, internet banking services may address all His payments, bills and banking needs while card services and Bank branches may also readily available in the urban centres and beyond.
Money transfer that might actually act as a catalyst is a push service and not a pull service, beneficiaries usually influence delivery mode. For mobile money transfer to be well positioned to kick start adoption in Nigeria, the expected rural beneficiaries should be able to understand, use and promote the services to families in the urban areas where the remittances flow from and not the way round.
There is need to develop anchor products that will support layers of other secondary services or the end user might be confused if the services are highly segmented like what obtains in a formal commercial bank.Mobile money services should be standard products and easy to understand and use.
Access channels.
Presently, the very successful mobile financial services in Africa are those launched on the Sim toolkit (STK) and USSD applications.Mass market penetrations can only be achieved via mass access channels which STK and USSD represent. These are applications that are immediately available on all mobile devices when deployed by mobile money providers in active collaborations of mobile network operators and third party aggregating firms that are directly linked to the MNOs.
While Java and Wap will not require the round-robin meetings with Mobile network operators, they do have their clear advantages as a means to get a leg into the market quickly but cannot meet the needs of the market where low handset devices exceed smart phones, literacy level is significant, Gprs footprint is limited to urban and semi urban areas.
A recent study in Nigeria by Institute for Money, Technology and Financial Inclusion (IMTFI) in Califonia and MobileMoneyAfrica showed that most mobile money users in Nigeria want to use the services via sms, ussd and stk but unfortunately sms is not an acceptable means of conducting mobile financial services by the financial regulator in Nigeria.Java and wap were the least chosen access channels.
The Central Bank of Nigeria will only achieve their purpose of financial inclusion if the mass access channels are available for all mobile money firms at agreed commercial rates from the MNOs. Selective access will not deliver overall ecosystem benefit. There is need to get the telecommunications regulator to enforce certain aspects of the mobile payment framework which are clearly beyond the purview of the financial regulator with clear sanction systems where applicable.
Distribution network.
A mobile money provider is essentially an e-distribution firm and not a technology company atleast in Africa. Though it is desirable to have more transaction run via person to person without the need of the agent intermediary but mobile money in Africa is still largely built around business owners, stores and merchants that are willing to perform cash in, cash out and accept mobile money as a form of currency.
Building the agency network require resources that will exceed technology budget in the ratio of 10 to 1 in the first year of operation. It is more challenging in a market like Nigeria where licensed providers must develop the agency network from the scratch. Mobile network operators are not licensed to provide mobile money services and the agents are not selling any of the primary product of the mobile money firms and will require to trust them first, understand the value proposition and sustainability before committing to the business relationship.
While agent commissions may be fixed but their cost varies depending on the prevailing situation per community. The further the distance of agent from the formal bank branch, the higher the cost of rebalancing and support for the agent which might increase service delivery cost for the agent.
Agency network can emerge either by birth where the mobile money provider develops the network from the scratch or if they get lucky and an existing distribution chain grants access to the outlets for mobile payment agency purposes. Though there are definite processes, strategies and procedures to develop and sustain an agency network that will be distributing low value, high volume services which mobile money is but what is not contestable is that the provider that is able to support agents and adequately incentivize them will win the race.
Government push services
The government is desirous of improving access to formal financial services, promoting cashless society which we may soon experience in south western part of Nigeria in early 2012 with the cashless Lagos initiative.
Government-2-person transactions may be the key to unleash the potentials of mobile financial services in a country where government is still active in the provision of public utilities and citizens support services from government agencies cutting across the Federal, State and local government.
Government can use mobile financial services to improve efficiency, transparency and reduce corruption since they will be able to directly distribute agricultural subsidies (Fertilizers, farming inputs etc), health insurance for low income, distribute conditional cash transfer programs like girl-child educational empowerment projects, HIV support initiatives, Poverty alleviation funds, amnesty funds in the Niger Delta without going through politicians that may need to carry physical cash and use same for political patronage or misuse.
Mobile money will also improve internal generated revenue of governments in collecting low value taxes, levies and duties that are not currently and efficiently managed due to the cash based nature of such collections in far flung communities where there are limited government presence and Bank branches.
How many of government ministries and agencies are aware of the potentials and availability of mobile money in Nigeria? How many of them will adopt, design and implement a mobile money strategy in the next 12 months in Nigeria?
Only time will tell.
4 Ikosi Road
Ikosi-Ketu Lagos-Nigeria234 805 783 8282
234 806 361 2572
234 809 514 5111
234 807 070 8795
234 805 844 9177
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