Mobile Money Africa

Bola Adeyinka
Chief Executive Officer.

Peter Afam Emeleogu
Chief Visionary Officer

MMA: Share with Africans the strong compelling reason for eartholeum’s foray into technology and mobile payment systems?

The banking infrastructure in Africa is low compared to the developed countries of the world, in terms of bank branches, point of sales terminals and ATM points. However, there is a high level of mobile telephony penetration and this provides a veritable opportunity to gaining unlimited access to financial services that were not freely available.
The need to enhance security through cashlessness, from the norm in Nigeria and other African societies where almost all financial transactions are cash based, brings to fore the imperative of Mobile Money that reduces such risks inherent in a cash based society. Mobile Money democratizes access to financial services.
Technology is all about finding solutions to life, enhancing convenience; For example the invention of the wheel brought about a great revolution in transportation.
Technology is about impacting people’s life and this is highlighted in our vision and mission at Eartholeum Networks
Vision: To lead in the provision of electronic solutions and transaction channels for people in Africa.
Mission: We provide secure, reliable & easy-to-use electronic transaction solutions and channels to support your lifestyle
Because of our exposure to worldwide advancement in terms of security, authentication and convenience, vis-à-vis our experience, we feel strongly compelled to create the same ease, which we are doing leveraging on various technologies and partnerships worldwide to create an environment that is world class, with a view to even surpassing global standards.

This we can confidently claim and has been substantiated by our technical partners that the requirements we have tasked them to meet is an operation far beyond their present services which they are offering in Europe, Middle East and Africa.

MMA: From your point of view, as an independent provider in the Mobile Money space, how can a non telcos and non Bank operator like Eartholuem engage the Nigerian market?

Our business model identifies that consumers in Nigeria and Africa are now more sophisticated and require world class standard services as obtainable worldwide; we have therefore, adopted a business friendly model which recognizes business interdependency, this makes us willing and ready to work with the different players in the mobile money space.
Our platform is designed with interfaces that can support the backend of the various players in the mix, banks or telcos. Our product is interoperable and helps us to focus on those who have not experienced the formal financial system, giving them access to the various financial services. So be it bank or telco, we have put together an ecosystem that is based on two indices:
a. Value: Our motivation is to impact people’s lives, which adds value to them and our product is the vehicle. There is no argument where there is obvious value which we bring to the table at all times.

b. Collaboration: We view competition as collaborators and or business model eases our market entry as we bring value and are already working with a number of participants in the mix: Financial institutions, Money transfer service providers, switch companies, government agencies etc.

MMA: How do you plan to bring Formal financial services to millions of Nigeria?

We have put together a very robust Agent network that will be taking banking to your doorsteps. It gives individuals a touch point where financial services can be anchored within their neighborhood.
The byline of our product “life is mobile” carries the essence of our service delivery. We want millions of Nigerians to harness an ecosystem to access what hitherto was not available to them.

MMA: Educate us more on the regulatory landscape as it affects Eartholeum?

According to the CBN Mobile Money framework, 3 models were defined:
a. Bank Focused: Where a bank promotes her localized product.
b. Bank Led: Where a bank or group of banks in conjunction with a service provider promotes a mobile payment product.
c. Non Bank Led: Where a non financial institution partners with others (bank or telco) to promote a mobile payment.
We at Eartholeum can operate in any of these models because we have an ecosystem that is interoperable and accommodate multi-players. We are not limited in any way and can function well in any of the CBN framework models.
However, our overall objective is to deliver an ecosystem that can accommodate millions of never served and under served Nigerians and Africans, because we believe in collaboration.

MMA: What services should 140 million Nigerian be expecting in the next few months from the stables of Eartholeum?

Nigerians should expect a reliable, secure and easy to use service from Eartholeum Networks Limited.
Our platform will deliver the following:
• Person to person transfer on their mobile phones
• Utility payments from the confines and convenience of their homes using their mobile phones
• Access financial services within their neighborhood etc.
We are delivering a complete bouquet of effective, reliable and cost friendly product which resonate the word convenience.

MMA : Any Regional or West African plans?

Our vision and mission statements make it clear that, we have a pan African vision; because we recognize that the challenges across Africa are similar. Looking through Sub-Sahara Africa we have the same ideologies as it affects financial transaction, where cash plays a very prominent role.
In addition, there is no well rounded developed financial service delivery infrastructures, which has given rise to the high un-banked population within the continent.
Once the Nigerian market is well conquered we shall face the African frontier and according to our philosophy we are very open to exploring partnerships with other organizations within other countries in Africa and beyond.

Contacts:
Office Address:
14b, Ahmed Onibudo Street
Victoria Island, Lagos.
Website: www.eartholeum.com
bolaadeyinka@eartholeum.com
peterafam@eartholeum.com
info@eartholeum.com

Tel: +234-1-4627961, 4627963
Fax: 234-1-4611142

Emmanuel Okoegwale

The Nigerian Financial Regulator, Central Bank of Nigeria had since last year released the regulatory framework to guide the operations of potential mobile money operators in Nigeria. The policy guidelines though with some flaws but like all regulatory positions, prevailing situations always shape and influence review on a consistent Basis or on a need arise Basis.

The poison pill
CBN has clearly stated that the Banks are favored ahead of MNO’s in the countries Mobile Money space. MNO’s will have to work with a licensed financial institution, therefore commercial Banks, micro finance and discount houses. MNO’s in Nigeria are not known, not to be in the drivers seat for their own deployments but the regulators stand on this may not be final but it holds for now.Though the Banks do not understand ‘low value’ and ‘High volume’ Business platform required to run MMT platforms but capacity can be sourced elsewhere and quickly.

The Alliances
Globacom, one of Nigeria’s most innovative MNO and second National carrier with operations in a couple of West African countries may join forces with ETBank which has a close ownership structure with Globacom.This relationship may be excellent for internal operations but may not deliver expected benefits for end users if the technology to be used is a combo of mobile,card and ATM. ETBank has a limited ATM and Branch Network in Nigeria.

MTN, Africa’s largest MNO with over 100 million subscribers in Africa and Middle East,is said to be working with GTBank.The Bank has proven to be a credible and trusted partner for Mobile Money providers in West Africa with impressive records with Txtpay in Ghana and Splash Mobile Money in Sierra Leone.The experiences in both market may count in local operations in Nigeria.

Zain is actively zapping through Africa with recent addition of sierra Leone,Malawi and Niger on the Zain zap Map.Zap has working relationship with CITI Bank in some parts of Africa but it may face significant challenges in Nigeria where the Bank is relatively unknown in retail Banking with limited Branch network and non existent ATM network.May face hindrance where ATM technology is required as cash out options.

Regional corridor
West Africa has strong cultural and economic ties with millions of migrant labor crossing into countries all across the region,all year round.Benin Republic alone accounts for more than 65% of Nigerian used car imports and also a well developed transportation hub between Lagos – Accra in Ghana.
Despite the huge potentials in the regional economy, most of the Businesses are still informal and like wise the remittances. Opportunities abound for MMT regional Hub to take advantage and explore the opportunities.

Game Changers
UBA Bank, a leading financial services provider in Nigeria with very ambitious African growth and a formidable regional Hub operations in West Africa is a strong contender in the MMT space with more than 7 million customers in Nigeria alone, close to 2,000 ATM across Nigeria, no other financial institution in West Africa is better positioned to champion the Bank led MMT provider in West Africa.

First Bank,Nigeria’s largest Bank by capitalization and a very strong retail sector, the Bank’s solid knowledge of mass market and spread of Branch network positions the Bank as a formidable competition in the MMT space.

Not to be left behind is FinBank’s Flashmecash, Nigeria’s first Mobile Money service, very secure and reliable but hampered by the market strategy which tied down the service in the Banking hall instead of developing agent network to promote it and developing transaction channels on the MMT platform. If the Bank can overcome these two key challenges, Flashmecash may end up occupying a space on the big league table of MMT providers in Nigeria.

Sign up for upcoming MMT training in Lagos -West Africa region by March:http://mobilemoneyafrica.com/trainings

Benjamin Pius

Share with Africans the vision of BSPMEDIA?

Our vision is to provide unparalleled access to critical business information that business executives across Africa need to achieve competitive advantage in their business.

How are your events impacting on the sector in Africa?

We believe that we are in the business of helping business and organisation grow in their respective markets.

With our wide-ranging programmes – delivered through our executive business meetings, summits, conferences and seminars – our customers gain access to the tools that will enable them make strategic business decision for their organizations. These decisions then impact their organization’s bottom-line in a strong and positive manner.

Educate us more on the upcoming events in West Africa?

We are very excited about our forthcoming events in West Africa. More importantly, during next month (February 2010) we will be hosting our 3rd “Mobile Payments and Mobile Summit” from the 24th – 26th February 2010 at the Southern Sun Hotel in in Lagos.

One of our flagship events, this summit has been designed to showcase success stories of local, regional and international m-Payments and m-Commerce projects, providing participants with fresh and innovative ideas that will enable them achieve sustainable success with their mobile commerce and mobile payments services.

Are we expecting same value compared to events in Europe / North America focusing on Banking the unbanked Africa?

The quality of our events and programmes speaks for itself. Judging by the reviews and feedback we got from participants at our previous events such as the ones in Johannesburg and Nairobi, I can tell you that the upcoming Lagos event, being a highly focused summit, will deliver superior quality and value in terms of networking opportunities and access to illuminating knowledge.

A brief on expected speakers?

We have secured some very important, high profile speakers to deliver key presentations. The important feature of this summit’s speaker panel is the industry spread that they cover. I mean, we have top level speakers from the Telecoms, Banking and Regulatory sectors of the African mobile money industry. In addition to the industry depth, we’ve also ensured that we drew key speakers from across the entire continent, from North to South and East to West Africa.

This a West African event and why your choice of Nigeria?

Nigeria is a major, major market for the industries that we serve. Following on from our mobile money events in Johannesburg and Nairobi, there had been clarion calls by our partners to come to Lagos, Nigeria for our West African leg of the summit. And I must tell you, we are surely delighted that we are hosting the event in Nigeria. The interest has been outstanding!

What should delegates expect?

Delegates would expect a high profile summit, deliver to the highest standard where their fellow delegates are top-level management executives. For Mobile Banking and Mobile Commerce executives, this is the event to be at.

Benjamin Pius
Director – Directors BSP Media,UK

African Mobile VAS Summit
22 – 24 February 2010
Central Lagos, Nigeria
www.bspmediagroup.com/AMVS_WA2010

Mobile Payments and Mobile Commerce Summit
24 – 26 February 2010
Central Lagos, Nigeria
www.bspmediagroup.com/events/MPMCS_WA2010

Mobile Money Fundamentals – MMF 101

Venue: Victoria Crown Plaza Hotel,Ajose Adeogun Street, Victoria Island. – www.vcp-hotel.com
Date: March 10th, 2010

Nigeria,in coming months will join the likes of Kenya where Mobile Money is changing the way people access financial services.More than 8Million people are actively served by the MPESA MMT System in Kenya alone and 15 percent of the GDP passes through the system.As potentials stakeholders prepare for Launch in Nigeria with 70Million subscribers under an addressable market of 140 Million people,MobileMoney Africa will be conducting series of trainings to enable the stakeholders acquire the required knowledge in the emerging industry.

Course Outline.

-Mobile Money Fundamentals.
-Relevance of MM to Nigerian economy.
-Early adopters (Successes and failures)
-Emerging scenario for Branch less Banking and Micro finance in Nigeria using MobileMoney
-Mobile Money Applications.
-Case study -MPESA VS FLASHMECASH, Same technology,different outcomes.
-Preliminary report of the Mobile Money Perception survey in six states covering 5,000 respondents in Nigeria.
-Q and A.

Facilitator;

Emmanuel Okoegwale – Editor – MobileMoneyAfrica Magazine
Board Member, FrontlinesmsCredit,USA,The world’s first open source Mobilemoney platform.
Redcloud Mobile Money UK.
Executive Director, Tagattitude Nigeria Ltd

With MobileMoneyAfrica’s MobileMoney Training course, you will get to learn all relevant information through an attractive and interactive program. This training is designed to add value to a broad audience from the technology providers, mobile industry and is beneficial for employees of financial institutions as well as those who are interested in learning all that is relevant to know about Mobile Money.

Fees:25,000 Nigeria Naira(Covers Training materials and Certificate).
Contact:Emmanuel@mobilemoneyafrica.com /+23480-3081-8868.

Mobile Money Fundamentals Training : Lagos - Nigeria (38) March 10th,2010

Interview with Sibyl Lindsay
XIPWIRE
VP of Sales and Marketing
www.xipwire.com

MMA: Share XIPWIRE’s background?

XIPWIRE was founded by Sharif Alexandre in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. Sharif has been in the IT world for 15 years working for companies such as MTV, Sprint and Lockheed Martin. Watching the rest of the world embrace mobile payments Sharif decided that he wanted to bring the technology to his home city of Philadelphia.

MMA: Congratulations on the launch of XIPWIRE, Please share with Africans what influenced your decisions to launch a mobile payment platform.

Mobile payments are common place around the world except in the United States. For as much as American’s depend on their phones it is surprising we have not been earlier adopters of the technology. XIPWIRE feels the technology is at a tipping point in the United States and Americans are finally ready to have their phones be both their communication life line and their wallet.
At XIPWIRE we also recognize that too many Americans are un- or underbanked. We wanted to create a service that provided everyone easy and convenient access to their money without the penalty of high fees.
XIPWIRE wants to support its community of small business owners and non-profits by offering them the lowest fee per transaction available. Consumers do not understand the impact credit card fees have on a business. Our goal is to help organizations keep their money where it belongs…in their pockets.

MMA:XIPWIRE is a combo of mobile and online, what are the core advantage of each channel using XIPWIRE?

XIPWIRE is all about convenient access to your money. Whether a XIPWIRE user is in front of a computer or is on the go with their mobile phone their money is at their finger tips.
With their mobile phone a XIPWIRE user can initiate a payment and receive cash from anywhere at any time. With time being a luxury these days XIPWIRE users have the ability to manage their money when it suits their schedule.
XIPWIRE.com offers users the ability to send and receive money but in a more content rich experience. With complete access to their XIPWIRE account users can review their transaction history, manage various accounts and transfer funds in and out of their XIPWIRE Wallet.
.

MMA: Simple and secured SMS seems to be the application of choice for most successful MMT projects in Africa. Is it same reason here?

XIPWIRE operates with a SMS code because it is universal protocol that can be securely used on almost any mobile phone. Text messages also offer a more resilient safeguard against network disruptions. Even if the mobile providers system is down the technology will keep trying to send the message on your behalf until it is successful. Another reason why receiving and sending money via text message is a natural choice because it requires no software and no training to use.

MMA:Millions of Africans are actively unbanked, how will your technology help them access formal financial services?

While XIPWIRE is not a bank it can enable access to an electronic financial infastructure. A XIPWIRE user is able to receive electronic paychecks, pay bills, send and receive money to family and friends and pay for goods and services both on-line and in their community.
XIPWIRE also allows merchants to offer XIPXCHANGE services. (XIPXCHANGE is a revenue generating opportunity for merchant to fund XIPWIRE accounts.)

MMA:Mobile operators seems to be more aggressive in the MMT space in Africa, are you open to work with them or the financial institutions?

XIPWIRE was designed to work with mobile operators as well as financial institutions. We are particularly interested in working with financial intuitions to mobile enable the accounts of their existing customers. This includes everything from doing a simple balance check to both person-to-person (P2P) and consumer to business (C2B) transactions.

MMA:Educate us on devices that can use the service?

XIPWIRE is not limited to any mobile provider and can work with any mobile phone that can send and receive text messages. Smart Phones that have Internet connectivity will have access to more advanced features of XIPWIRE through its on-line portal.

MMA:Security?

When it comes to security, our philosophy is to use a layered approach to guard against both unauthorized access and potential fraudulent activity. Each layer applies a combination of industry best practices, industrial strength encryption and sophisticated software to ultimately create a series of “firewalls” that protect the integrity and privacy of your data.
More details on out security can be found at: https://xipwire.com/security
The Anonymous XIP ID feature is for XIPWIRE users that would like to make purchases but do not want to give out their XIP ID or mobile number. XIPWIRE users can text: “ID” to 56624 (XIPWIRE’s mobile number) and they will instantly get a temporary code that is good for 15 minutes and only one purchase.
XIPWIRE users can also increase the limit of their XIPWIRE wallets by uploading a security photo that can be reviewed by the merchant during a transaction. At XIPWIRE we focus on protecting both the user and our XIPWIRE merchants.

MMA:Plans for Africa in future and what should Africans expects?

We would like to work with the current providers and financial institutions to expand the reach of mobile financial services to all Africans.

www.xipwire.com

Citizens of the world,woke up on the 12th of January to find the country of Haiti under the ruins, due to the effects of devastating earthquake.Thousands of people were reported killed and many still unaccounted for and millions are without food,water,medicines and shelter.

Matching action with words,President Obama made pledges and millions of dollars donations flowed in from all around the world. From the Big corporate donors to the very ubiquitous Mobile Phones,they all proved that the world is now a connected place,where commerce can take place,anytime and anywhere.As at the last count, donations from Mobile phones alone already exceeded 24million USD with more than 2.5million people texting $10 for the Haiti relief efforts which is added to the monthly bill.Small donations are making big impacts in Haiti.

I spoke with many Africans,Living in Africa if they made any donations towards the Relief efforts of our Brothers and Sisters in Haiti,the answer was negative with only a few positives from Kenya and South Africa(This is withing the circle of personal influence / friends and not postulating a general trend for Africans). Safaricom,MPESA’s parent company had set up a donation account for Kenyans to make donations via Mobile Money platform,MPESA.

The Main reason for not contributing to the donation is that they have ability to donate between 1 – 10 USD (willingness) but they do not have the means ( access ) to make such small value transaction,cheaply without having to travel to a Bank, stay on queue, leave their Jobs for hours, travel to next town to visit the Bank but they all have a Mobile Phone,actually conducted this short interview via mobile phone telconference and SMS,talking to 35 people in seven countries.

When Final donation statistics are taken,Africa will most likely record least contributions to a country that is more connected to them,racially and Historically than any other Nation on the face of earth.This is our score card,not because we lack capacity for kindness and Love but we lack the ability to share Love using simple technologies like mobile payment.

If you are living in countries where these services work, kindly make your donations to the Haiti Relief efforts by sending your donations to the following organizations Via your Mobile Phone:

• Kenya Red Cross Society via MPESA – Business Number 508000
• ACLJ – Text ACLJ to 90999 to give $10
• Compassion International – Text DISASTER to 90999 to give $10
• Family Health International – Text FHI to 90999 to give $5
• FAMU – Text RELIEF to 50555 to give $5
• Florida Hospital – Text MISSION to 90999 to give $5
• Friends of the World Food Program – Text FRIENDS to 90999 to give $5
• Leon H. Sullivan Foundation – Text SUMMIT to 90999 to give $%
• Rotary Foundation – Text ROTARY to 90999 to give $5
• United Nations Foundation – Text CERF to 90999 to give $5
• United Way – Text HAITI to 864833 to give $5

You may also visit http://haiti.ushahidi.com,powered by Clickatell to Donate, Volunteer, Submit a Report, Track Information, Register Missing Persons, and Receive SMS alerts

Kindly send New Links to Mobile Phone / SMS donations initiatives to the Editor for publication.Thank you

Emmanuel Okoegwale
emmanuel@mobilemoneyafrica.com
+234 8030818868

As we march into 2010,many mobile commerce initiatives are in active development and some are already helping Africans engage in formal financial services by using simple mobile technologies to change lives.Positive results are coming in from all over Africa and we hope this year will be better.

Africa, more than ever is at the threshold of History but we need your help,knowledge and experiences to make it happen.For the First time ever,Innovation is spreading from Africa to the rest of the world.

I am actively working on the African center for Mobile financial inclusion which will help shape the industry,Conduct researches and studies,regulatory think tank, policy and strategy formulation,research and curriculum development for Mobile money certification programs in Africa.

The center is still at a conceptual stage and your contributions as a volunteer, board member,Free Lancer will help us gain direction, traction and focus.

Join us for an opportunity to contribute to the development of Africa.

Thank you.

Emmanuel Okoegwale
emmanuel@mobilemoneyafrica.com
Publisher – MobileMoneyAfrica Magazine.
Africa’s leading resource for Mobile Financial inclusion.

Paul Leishman,Knowledge Manager – Mobile Money for the Unbanked


www.gsmworld.com/mmublog

MMA:What is the deployment tracker designed to do?

The tracker has been designed for the mobile money and financial inclusion community to track markets where mobile money has been launched, assess latent demand for mobile money in different markets, and benchmark approaches that other operators have taken to service design and partnerships. Basically, if you look at the tracker you will be provided with a global snapshot of what the mobile money looks like today: you’ll see what operators are active in each market, what services they’re offering, how they’ve partnered with banks and technology providers, and more.

MMA:What informed your organization’s decision to develop the Mobile Money Tracker?

We developed the tracker in response to the rapid speed at which this industry is developing, and the need that we all have for good, accurate data. Without a tool like this, it becomes more likely that we’ll miss trends or key issues as a community.

More than anything, we developed the tool because the community expressed a demand for it. We get a lot of inquiries from people who are curious to understand the approaches that operators in other markets are taking to launching mobile money. Through the tracker, we can provide the industry with a global snapshot of activity. And of course as the Mobile Money for the Unbanked team is fortunate to work with operators from many markets, we are well positioned to offer this tool.

MMA:How often will the data on each country deployment be updated?

We’ll update the tracker very regularly, basically as soon as information can be publicly released. We will also introduce a feature on MMU Blog (www.mmublog.org) where we summarize recent developments on the tracker. This will include new features that have been launched on the tracker, and new data for countries that has been added.

MMA:Some regions are more active others on the tracker. is this due to lack of information or no deployments?

Unfortunately, in most cases it’s due to lack of deployments. Central Africa in particular is a region in which we’d like to see more activity. Currently, the tracker is showing no deployments in the region, but we’re hoping that will change in 2010.

MMA:What about initiatives that are financial services driven and not necessarily an MNO? Are they all tracked?

The tracker is designed to include any deployment that delivers a financial service (i.e. money transfer, bill payments, savings) via a mobile phone to the unbanked or under-banked population in developing countries. This could include deployments that are not MNO-led. WING Money in Cambodia is a good example of a deployment like this, which we do track in the tool.

About GSMA
The GSMA represents the interests of the worldwide mobile communications industry. Spanning 219 countries, the GSMA unites nearly 800 of the world’s mobile operators, as well as more than 200 companies in the broader mobile ecosystem. Visit www.gsmworld.com and www.mobileworldlive.com

Branchless Banking which has long been promoted in the Nigerian Banking Landscape as the new frontier to reach the Unbanked populations seems to be limited to the roll out of ATM ( Less than 12,000) and online Banking. Beyond these, no significant efforts had been made to truly launch Branchless Banking despite the strong compelling evidences that it is cheaper and faster to launch Agent assisted Branchless Banking against Branch Banking roll out.

It will only be wishful thinking that the Banks will turn profitable at some Branch locations in Nigerian because the services available at those Branches are not relevant to the target market and deploying resources to make profit from a non -existing market will be akin to waiting for a dead man’s shoes. Activities at many Branches can be handled by a group of merchant outlets in same locality, cost effectively and efficiently using secure technology and cash kitty of merchant outlets owners.

2009 would go down as the year that unmasked the behind the scene dealings at some Banks in Nigeria which was brought about by alleged poor management practices and global economy crisis. Some leading players are already making significant efforts to regain market share and work their ways back to profitability. As the Banks try to steer their acts back to profitability, staffs are losing Jobs, Branch roll outs are slowing down, Credit lines are drying up and even some unprofitable Branches may be shut down in coming months.

Financial services are profitable ventures, all over the world and cannot afford to provision services like Public service enterprises. The incentive to remain in Business is largely influenced by the outcomes of rewards against the risk.To remain competitive, Banks are therefore undertaking the drastic measures to save cost, run a lean and effective work force and limit Branch roll out. Good as it may sound, the negative outcomes of all these would mean that more people will be left out of formal Banking services as services may not reach the underserved communities in near future. The Nigerian Unbanked populations in their millions are still left at the mercies of informal saving schemes as Banks do not seems to have a clear and sustainable plan of engagement for these group of people.

Technology can enable Banks and their customers to interact remotely in a trusted way through existing retail outlets like Gas stations, Eateries, corner stores etc. Examples abound where Banks use agents to reach their customers. In Brazil with over 100,000 Banking agents and Kenya with over 12,000 agents. Working with a group of close to 20 Agent Network managers, Lemon Bank in Brazil has more than 6,000 Agent point Network without a single Bank Branch and it is more profitable than Banks with mega structures and Branches.

With the CBN regulation on e-money that permits the use of agents, the Banks are now empowered to explore opportunities that where beyond grasp, prevously. The unbanked can now be targeted with products and services that best fit them in their own environments.

Having competed extensively on ‘How we compete syndrome’ (Look alike products, cluster Branch roll outs) of the Banking sectors, the Banks will be faced with unfamiliar foes and Behemoths in coming months. Mobile operators are eyeing the Bank’s uneaten pie, The Unbanked millions at the Bottom of the pyramid. Banks compete on niche segment basis and a few deep pockets customers can influence or even determine profitability but for the telcos, niche segments don’t work for them.

With 70 million subscribers under their kitty and the on-coming launch of mobile money by the likes of MTN,Glo and Zain in coming months, the chances of Financial institutions getting to the unbanked becomes more challenging measured against the deep marketing budgets, spread and knowledge of mobile operators in managing low value, high volume business platforms. For the Banks, it may mean, Live and lets die, if they don’t brace up to the charging Behemoths.

Emmanuel Okoegwale
emmanuel@mobilemoneyafrica.com

Arnaud Chevalier – Director of New Domains and Technical Sales, Kabira

Q: Could you provide a brief overview of your organization and your role and responsibilities in it?

A: Kabira Technologies, has been providing software infrastructure solutions to communication service providers since 1998. During this time, Kabira has successfully implemented solutions for more than 100 customers in over 40 countries including AT&T, Orange, Hutchison 3G, Visa, and Hitachi.. Kabira has also built a significant footprint in Africa with implementations in more than 15 countries, from Morocco to Botswana and from Egypt to Senegal. This includes major operators like Orange affiliates, Maroc Telecom or Mobinil. Those customers run some of their most mission-critical applications on our solutions. Because of this, Kabira designs its solutions to deliver the highest levels of reliability and total customer. Our mobile payments solution, the Kabira Mobile Transaction Hub™ (KMTH) is built upon Kabira’s market-leading transaction processing platform and enables operators to create innovative and differentiated mobile payment services.
KMTH is an open and flexible mobile transaction processing platform that allows mobile network operators, service providers and financial institutions to deliver, mobile airtime and money services, from airtime recharges up to remittances services or utilities bill payments – nationwide or between different countries.
As Director of New Domains and Technical Sales for Kabira, it is my responsibility to for driving strategic discussions with leading prospects and customers to anticipate the future of the Telecommunications industry’s products and services, and for turning these into new product offerings for Kabira.

Q: Your company is currently providing services for several countries in Africa and has been an active participant in our telecommunications market. What trends do you believe will be growing in the coming year?

This is a timely question right now. Kabira recently exhibited at AfricaCom 2009 and we heard directly from many people that broadband is projected to take off in 2010, particularly with fiber deployments in major urban areas. We heard that this will be one of the biggest growth drivers for operators in this region. Also, WiMAX will grow, both for mobility’s sake as well as an alternative for broadband coverage.
Those trends are paving the way for launching aggressive mobile web offerings. A heavy prepaid context is going to be a key factor that operators must consider when they design their lower-end packages of targeted service offerings: implementing smart policy and charging adapted to your market will help to drive consumer adoption of mobile data services in the very near future – an area where Kabira can bring also immediate value for African operators.

Q: And did you hear of any significant trends dealing specifically with mobile money in Africa?

Of course! Mobile Money is – again – the hottest topic for the African telecom market with a lot of discussion around M-PESA. This is true not only for countries like Kenya, but also for even bigger countries like Tanzania. And, although it took more time in Tanzania than it did in Kenya to get started, mobile money applications are now really beginning to take off. Of course, understanding how the potential success for different services varies given local contexts, is clearly “a requirement” for implementing service packages and operators must understand that a number of key factors go into determining this potential for success. Specifically, factors such as the policy for agents to manage their fleet of mobile resellers and the effects of local regulatory impacts to drive registration for those particular services are issues that must be addressed.
Last, but by far not least, we feel that cross-border remittance will not only be an important application for inclusion in the mobile money service suite, it is a “must-have.” We have heard from several sources that rather than supporting numerous varied financial services, the key to having a successful mobile money business is in having a large set of corridors and touch-points available to support migrants in developing countries.

Q: Can you touch on what all these trends mean to your company, Kabira Technologies?

This is very exciting for us because the trends we heard about at AfricaCom validate both Kabira’s product approach and the partnerships we are building to support this region. We are very much looking forward to actively participate in all these initiatives in Africa throughout next year and beyond.

Q: We have heard that interest in your technology is growing very rapidly right now because it has demonstrated that it can play an extremely important role in helping operators in Africa. Can you describe how your technology would do this?

What Kabira’s mobile payments solutions do is enable a pragmatic and agile approach for operators to address the emerging and fast-evolving mobile payments market. Operators who implement Kabira solutions are able to rely on a highly available mobile payments platform that is proven to scale to extremely large volumes of mission-critical transactions on standard commodity hardware. Having such a platform allows these operators to anticipate future growth, and be assured they can successfully support that growth – flexibly and cost-efficiently. By adopting a leading-edge infrastructure platform approach with Kabira, operators could be able to grow their business through such activities as:
• Supporting an aggressive agents’ recruitment plan because they are now able to employ a feature-rich and flexible commissioning configuration. This allows them to attract and manage new agents much more efficiently.
• Facilitating user adoption with configurable promotions patterns and local adaptation to preferred channels (SMS, USSD, STK …)
• Ensuring compliance to specific regulations
More than simply a set of solutions addressing key functional and operational aspects of mobile money, KMTH is also a framework that enables our customers to innovate and support an aggressive services roadmap.
And, with Kabira, they can do all of this in a manner that limits their delivery risks since their solution is built on a platform and with an organization with a very long track-record of secure, successful, highly available and reliable deployments for over 10 years, supporting some of the largest operators in the world.

Q: Can you share an example of how you have implemented this for an operator in Africa?

Let me describe what we are doing for an operator with presence across multiple countries in Africa. The main objective of our customer was to acquire one unique payment gateway platform, able to handle all types of payment transactions such as airtime purchase, e-money transfers, or international money remittance. A major, primary focus was on initial use cases with a proven return on investment so as to justify the investment in this new software infrastructure. Obviously, key characteristics for this software platform were reliability, scalability, flexibility and the ability to evolve easily.
With Kabira’s long history of expertise and experience in both the telecommunications and payments markets, we were able to propose a platform solution with the strict levels of security and reliability required for mobile payments transactions. Additionally, the Kabira solution enabled our customer to have an iterative approach for the deployment of their payment services ? leveraging each project phase, always building the services portfolio at an increasing pace. On top of that, we could show that we would be deploying platforms for this operator which have been “field-proven” across multiple geographies, and supporting huge subscriber-bases. This assured the operator that the Kabira solution could easily handle the levels of traffic produced by Africa’s most densely populated countries.
By working with this operator to take an infrastructure-based solution, the operator understood that it would be able to obtain the speed and reliability they need for their mobile payments / mobile money transactions, while at the same time increasing their potential to improve their margin.

Q: And with regards to remittances, what is Kabira’s vision?

International Money Transfers represent a huge potential for African operators – and they know it. Our belief is that for capturing a significant market share and value out of the remittance flows, Operators will need to propose as fast as possible a simple and immediate access, not to one, not to three but to tens of countries, from neighborhood to developed countries. Interoperability, interconnectivity and settlement facilities are key features to bring to Operators, and that is why Kabira is focusing its efforts in this domain to build the true hub that will bring that promise to the market.

Q: Thank you for this wonderful information for our readers. Can you tell us how to get in touch with someone at Kabira if they want to know more?

Certainly. To find out more about Kabira and our mobile money solutions, you can visit our website at www.kabira.com. To learn more about what we can do for telecommunications service providers in Africa, please send an email message to info@kabira.com with your contact information and our Africa sales team will get back in touch with you.

Thank you.

“Arnaud Chevalier is Director of New Domains and Technical Sales is one of Kabira’s leading experts on service delivery systems for wireless and wireline broadband networks. Arnaud joined Kabira in 2000 and has been instrumental in helping Kabira’s team win critical projects in the service aware, fulfillment and mobile payments domains with major Telco operators. Arnaud’s engineering background brings him a wealth of telecommunications experience. He holds a Physicist Engineer Diploma from Ecole Supérieure de Physique & Chimie Industrielles in Paris, France, as well as a DEA graduate from Telecom ParisTech (ENST), France.”