Mobile Money Africa

Safaricom shareholders have until the end of September to decide whether to receive their dividend through M-Pesa or traditional means.

In two separate paid up advertisements carried in the dailies on Thursday, the mobile phone provider has given its over 800,000 shareholders up to September 30, 2009 to opt-in.

“The Safaricom dividend payment Opt-in Service is applicable to local individual investors only. Partnerships and companies are not eligible,” said the advertisements, which also gave a list of designated opt-in locations across Kenya.

To register, each shareholder is required to submit a CDS account statement or share certificate, and an original identification document and a copy.

The move follows approval by the shareholders of the management’s proposal to pay dividend through M-Pesa during their annual general meeting held in Nairobi in August.

It makes Safaricom the first company to tap into technology to pay its shareholders the dividend, a move aimed at cutting costs associated with the traditional form of positing cheques.

Incidentally, the AGM which approved the electronic system of paying out dividend, was also a first one for Kenya’s corporate world as East Africa’s most profitable company did not give its shareholders refreshments and gifts commonly associated with company AGMs as part of its austerity measures.

KenGen has also expressed similar intentions to cut on costs and logistics’ nightmares of paying dividend to its over 230,000 shareholders.

If micro-payments are finding their own target market anywhere at this point in time, it appears to be in the market for digital goods like games and social-network applications.
mENABLE which began operations several years ago announced this week that the mobile processing product it shares with its parent company, txtNation Ltd., has added several million unique transactions from the start of this year with the introduction of a new billing widget, adding further integration and payment options for websites.

Michael Whelan, txtNation Director says; “The new service addition is clearly driving the company’s growth.” Until 2009, txtNation, which provides a wide variety of mobile services like mobile campaigns such as competitions and voting to content services, had a year on year growth rate in mobile billing. “The acceleration in our growth from the start of this year until now is largely due to micropayments, through mENABLE.”

Users could rely on credit or debit cards, but sending an SMS to a number is easier and less distracting, Whelan says. “It’s a lot easier to send a text message than reach for your wallet,” he notes.

“Role-playing games, for example, are seeing additional revenue from microbilling at rates as high as 90 per cent of their initial sales, while other games are generating as much as 60 per cent of their initial sales profits in micro-billing transactions.”

With over seven years of operating experience, txtNation has high-scale connectivity with mobile networks worldwide. The mENABLE mobile payments platform features one of the most extensive network of direct operator connections across the world. Direct mobile network relationships are a key factor for virtual goods, social networking and gaming companies evaluating where to deploy secure transaction platforms that are critical for new revenue generation. txtNation, as a leading sms aggregator and premium sms provider also act as the technological backbone platform, via their legacy gateway product, mBILL.

txtNation friendly carriers include Alltel, AT&T, Cellular One, Sprint Nextel, Boost, T-Mobile, US Cellular, Verizon, and Virgin. txtNation says also that more people have mobile phones than have bank accounts, 4 billion to 2 billion, making a mobile account the closest thing billions of people have to a real credit line.

Recently, the Financial Services Authority (FSA), responsible for implementing the European Union’s Electronic Money directive in the United Kingdom, relaxed the guidelines that determine what can be purchased via a mobile device. As a result, micro-payments are expected to steadily grow in popularity in major markets over the coming years.

txtNation will continue to work closely with many of the world’s most powerful consumer brands to build and evolve micro-billing solutions that enable consumers to pay for non-mobile products via their mobile phone. txtNation, are betting on micro-payments.

Steve Mbogo

Family Bank customers can now repay loans through their mobile phones. The new service known as Pepesha Pesa, allows Family Bank customers to send money directly to their account in order to offset loans and other obligations.

The Pepesha Pesa service that will be offered on Safaricom’s M-Pesa platform through its Paybill feature is a key advancement in mobile banking and will offer Family Bank customers convenience while reducing the costs of travel to branches.

“Pepesha Pesa breaks the limitation of time in providing service during the banking hours only. Most importantly, is that this new service enables access to banking anytime, anywhere, therefore allowing bank customers greater accessibility and bringing financial services to their finger tips,” said Peter Kinyanjui, Family Bank’s CEO.

The service is an innovation that will instill credit payment discipline among borrowers who are mainly from the SME sector and allow the bank to extend its reach to rural areas.

“The mobile banking offers consumers added value to the current services since they are not limited to conventional branch-based banking and are able to improve their credit profile by paying their obligations on time without any barrier in time or distance” said Mr Kinyanjui.

MoneyGram

MoneyGram International, a leading provider of global payment services, today announced that members of its customer loyalty program, MoneyGram Rewards, can now be notified via SMS text message that a money transfer transaction has been picked up by the receiver.

SMS Receive Notice, which launched today in the U.S., France, Germany and Spain, is the latest example of MoneyGram’s efforts to provide Rewards members with services that allow them greater control and choice in managing their finances.

The MoneyGram Rewards program provides members with discounts on money transfers, as well as a host of services designed to empower them with “bank-like” control over their money transfer activity, including a personalized card for expediting transfers, quarterly statements, e-mail notifications when transfers are received, and the ability to manage their account and profile online.

“We asked customers around the world how we could enhance the MoneyGram Rewards program and an SMS receive notification was the most-requested feature.” said Tim Summers, vice president and general manager of Consumer Products at MoneyGram. “These receive notifications provide customers transferring funds with almost real-time certainty that their transaction has been completed. We’re delighted to now offer what our members agree is not only a useful service but also one that provides them with greater peace of mind.”

According to the International Telecommunication Union, there were an estimated 4 billion mobile phone subscribers worldwide at the end of 2008. And, according to Summers, as more people rely on mobile technology, they are demanding added functionality such as money transfer services and receive notices.

To receive text message notifications, customers must enroll in the MoneyGram Rewards program online at www.moneygram.com, or ask a MoneyGram service agent to enroll them at the time of a transaction. Current Rewards members can begin receiving text message payment notifications simply by texting ENROLL and their Rewards number to MGRAM.

MoneyGram Rewards was introduced in the United States in 2008. It was rolled out in Germany, France and Spain in the summer of 2009. The program now has more than 3 million customers who have the opportunity to enjoy discounts on transfer fees, faster transactions and the ability to manage their account and profile online. MoneyGram Rewards will launch in Canada later this fall.

New faces are set to enter the mobile money transfer market in coming weeks, setting the stage for a bruising battle for market share and revenues as the industry matures.

The next two months will see a slew of new challengers to the existing mobile money transfer solutions M-Pesa and Zap, meaning consumers will soon have greater choice from a wider range of providers. Essar — which hopes to launch an initiative in tandem with Obopay — has said that trials on its service are progressing well and the company anticipates it will be able to meet a proposed September rollout.

It is unclear if Nokia and Essar, who have both invested in Obopay’s platform, will forge a joint partnership in this market as Essar officials maintained that they were keen to launch the service in Kenya in the next month.

“We have already received approval from the Central Bank to hold the trials which are progressing well and we are still on course for a September rollout of the service,” said Mr Srinivasa Iyengar, Essar Kenya CEO.

Telkom Kenya, which also hopes to launch its service known as Orange Money later this year, is angling to enter the market in October or November with a product targeting the unbanked.

Entire range
Using Orange Money, customers who do not have bank accounts will have access to an entire range of services making it possible to carry out day-to-day banking operations and transactions using their mobile phones.

This comes against a backdrop of the recent announcement by mobile handset manufacturer Nokia, which is poised to enter the growing mobile money transfer market with the launch of its own service which will target its users in developing countries.

Nokia Money will enable consumers to send money to other people just by using the person’s mobile phone number, as well as pay merchants for goods and services, pay utility bills, or recharge their prepaid SIM cards.

Nokia plans to become the first mobile handset maker to make an entry into the growing mobile payments field, and analysts said its entry could change the rules of a game thus far dominated by mobile service providers.

“Mobile financial services offer a market opportunity with long term growth potential. In many countries, mobile phone ownership significantly exceeds bank account usage, suggesting that many mobile phone users have very limited or no access to basic financial services. With more than four billion mobile phone users and only 1.6 billion bank accounts, global demand for access to financial services presents a strong opportunity to combine mobile devices with simple but powerful financial services such as Nokia Money,” said Mary McDowell, chief development officer, Nokia.

Market share
The mobile manufacturer hopes to leverage its position as the manufacturer with the largest market share to build a base from which it aims to target the over four billion mobile phone owners who do not have access to financial services around the world.

The Nokia Money service will be operated in co-operation with Obopay, a leader in developing global mobile payment solutions, which Nokia invested in earlier this year. Obopay lets consumers and businesses buy, pay, and transfer money through any mobile phone using Obopay’s mobile application, text messages, mobile Web, widget or Obopay.com.

The potential for mobile phones to be used as payment wallets has lead to the UK Government setting up a team to ensure fraud is not a significant problem. The new technology, which will allow customers to buy things by swiping them over sensors is being trialled by phone companies and banks in the UK. In an effort to design out opportunities for crime and reduce harm to consumers the government has been working with industry to ensure the technology builds in tough security measures at the earliest stages.

Working with the government, the mobile phone and banking industry have agreed to a set of guidelines.

Apart from the obvious issues, such as disabling payments from stolen phones, they have also agreed that that any transactions above the maximum contactless payment value (currently £10) will require verification, such as a pin code.

Home Office Minister, Alan Campbell said, ‘These guidelines are an important step forward in protecting the public from criminals. I am pleased that the mobile and banking industries have worked with us to ensure that the public are protected at the earliest opportunity.”

Near Field Communication is a technology that enables contactless payment, where mobile phones are used as credit or debit cards. Trials of this technology, where mobile phones permit contactless payments, are already advanced in many countries. In Japan mobiles are being used as house keys and in Germany, supermarkets are trialling barcode scanning and automated payment using mobiles. In the UK, several financial institutions have recently announced trials of contactless payment using mobile phones; both Barclays and the Royal Bank of Scotland have trialled phone featuring Visa ‘payWave’ and MasterCard PayPass technology.

ABUJA – Nigeria:Leading firms in the Mobile research and financial Inclusion with relevant experiences in the African Market space,JBBResearch of America and Pofib of Netherlands are partnering with MMA to conduct the first Mobile money and card payment survey in Africa’s largest nation,Nigeria.Mr Piet Biemans,CEO of Pofib had worked extensively in different emerging markets in Africa , Central Asia and Central & Eastern
Europe where He developed Postal Financial services and Postal Banking systems and was lead facilitator for the training of top management of the Nigerian Postal service in Holland.Julien Blin,principal analyst and CEO of JBBResearch,brings decades of experiences in the Mobile Telecommunications landscape in the African and particularly West African Markets as a partnering firm for the survey.

MobileMoneyAfrica, in coming weeks will conduct Perception surveys in selected states across the Federal Republic of Nigeria with a view to understand the potential drivers of Mobile Money, transactional
services that will drive uptake, potential users demographics across different social and occupational groups, access, End user costing metrix and other relevant information that are needed for decision
support in the industry.This is the first in the series that will take us to other parts of West Africa in the short term.

The outcomes of the survey will help Financial Institutions and Mobile payment providers to competitively position their products and services in the evolving ecosystem.

POFIB Development BV

Postal Financial Business Development
Improving Financial accessibility is focused on existing and new mass retail financial services also for un-and under-banked people mostly in developing countries, based on a ‘branchless banking’ concept with an operational and service role for postal financial services networks.

Pofib services are mainly composed of advisory, training and support services for financial sector institutions and other service providers which deliver mass-retail financial services, in co-operation with postal companies and post offices, in a branchless banking concept.

These mass retail financial services providers are mainly postal banks, (postal) savings banks and other retail banks, micro finance initiatives as well as remittances operators (domestic and international).

www.pofib.nl

JBBResearch

JBBResearch’s goal is to help organization improve business strategy, providing them with the most insightful and most in-depth research and consulting services available today.

The firm specializes in the wireless and telecommunications space and is committed to assist firms in successfully navigating the fast pace information technology field by bringing the most advanced and cutting edge solutions.

www.JBBResearch.com

For Partnership and sponsorship:

West Ekhator
Kwest@mobilemoneyafrica.com
www.MobileMoneyAfrica.com

Avijit Nanda

Avijit Nanda – President, TimesofMoney

Mr Avijit Nanda,President of India’s leading Remmitance firm,Timesofmoney has joined the MobileMoneyAfrica advisory board.
At TimesofMoney, Avijit has played a key role in driving business development and alliances with banks and institutions to launch Remittance platforms across the globe.
In his career span of 15 years Avijit has worked in many capacities. Prior to this position, Avijit was heading strategic roles with market leaders like ICICI bank and HSBC. Avijit comes with diverse exposure across various functions that include successful line management for Product & Portfolio Management, Acquisition, Channel management, Marketing, and Strategic Alliances apart from Sales and Distribution.

Avijit has a strong customer orientation, excellent networking, negotiations and project management skills. He is a well-known authority on the subject of Cross Border global remittances, ePayments Service and mCommerce. He is an Advisory Board member of IAMTN and has been a global representative of the World Bank and G8’s Private Public Partnership Steering Group.

He will be joining other advisory members,made up of Mobile money experts and consultants from across the globe.The board members ensure MMA’s content points the industry forward in the evolving Mobile money ecosystems in Africa.

Nokia Money, a new mobile financial service enables financial management and payments from a mobile phone

Espoo, Finland – Nokia today introduced Nokia Money, a new mobile financial service offering consumers with mobile device access to basic financial services. For many consumers, this will be the first time they have had any access to such financial services.

Nokia Money has been designed to be as simple and convenient as making a voice call or sending an SMS. It will enable consumers to send money to another person just by using the person’s mobile phone number, as well as to pay merchants for goods and services, pay their utility bills, or recharge their prepaid SIM cards (SIM top-up). The services can be accessed 24 hours a day from anywhere, meaning savings in travel costs and time. Nokia is building a wide network of Nokia Money agents, where consumers can deposit money in or withdraw cash from their accounts.

4 billion mobile phones but only 1.6 billion bank accounts

“We believe mobile financial services offer a market opportunity with long term growth potential. In many countries, mobile phone ownership significantly exceeds bank account usage, suggesting that many mobile phone users have very limited or no access to basic financial services. With more than 4 billion mobile phone users and only 1.6 billion bank accounts, global demand for access to financial services presents a strong opportunity to combine mobile devices with simple but powerful financial services such as Nokia Money”, said Mary McDowell, EVP and Chief Development Officer, Nokia.

Mobile payments will be the next step for delivering financial services to hundreds of millions of people, both urban and rural, who are underserved by existing payment means, especially in emerging economies.

“Rural consumers will particularly benefit from money transfers and, for urban consumers used to online services, we are enabling services such as payment of utility bills, purchase of train and movie tickets, top-ups, all through their mobile phones. Nokia Money is simple to use, secure and available across different operator networks and on virtually any mobile phone. This means millions of new consumers will soon be able to manage all their financial needs from their mobile phone”, said Teppo Paavola, VP and Head of Corporate Business Development, Nokia.

Building a new ecosystem for mobile payments

The Nokia Money service will be operated in cooperation with Obopay, a leader in developing global mobile payment solutions, which Nokia invested in earlier this year. The service is based on Obopay’s mobile payment platform, with unique and newly developed mobile elements. Nokia intends the service to be open and interoperable with other payment services as well.

“Obopay shares Nokia’s vision for bringing mobile financial services to millions of people worldwide. We’re excited that Nokia has chosen Obopay’s platform. Nokia’s leading market position, strong brand recognition and global distribution channel, using the Obopay platform with uniquely developed mobile elements, means the Nokia Money service is well positioned to bring the next generation of mobile payment services to the world,” said Carol Realini, Founder and CEO of Obopay.

Nokia Money is the result of a powerful collaboration Nokia is forging between different partners in different markets around the world. It is designed to work in partnership with mobile network operators and financial institutions, involving distributors and merchants in a dynamic ecosystem to seamlessly provide the new services.

“As a result of the innovative partnerships and comprehensive ecosystem we are forging with the banking and financial industry, as well as leading network operators, we believe Nokia Money will bring financial inclusion to many who currently have limited or no access to financial services. Uniting the strengths of the mobile and financial services industries will change the way people around the world can manage their money in the future”, added McDowell.

The Nokia Money service will be shown for the first time at Nokia World on the 2nd and 3rd of September 2009 in Stuttgart, Germany, and it is planned to be rolled out gradually to selected markets, beginning in early 2010.

About Nokia

Nokia is a pioneer in mobile telecommunications and the world’s leading maker of mobile devices. Today, we are connecting people in new and different ways – fusing advanced mobile technology with personalized services to enable people to stay close to what matters to them. We also provide comprehensive digital map information through NAVTEQ; and equipment, solutions and services for communications networks through Nokia Siemens Networks.

Media Enquiries:

Nokia
Communications
Tel. +358 7180 34900
E-mail: press.services@nokia.com

www.nokia.com

DirecPay, the bank neutral payments aggregator service from TimesofMoney, has joined hands with PayMate, Mumbai-based wireless transactions company, to provide an extended, mobile payment facility to its merchants across India. This will be in addition to its existing bouquet of payments modes like credit cards, debit cards and Net Banking, which DirecPay offers through more than 20 banks.
With this arrangement, DirecPay aims to aggregate all possible payment options under one single umbrella for merchants and give them a single interface for receiving payments in a secure, convenient and a cost-effective manner using the best of technology and providing excellent support at all times. It enables secure electronic payments between people & businesses easily and instantly.

PayMate’s hybrid SMS & IVR based solution lets the user link his mobile phone to any financial instrument of his choice like Bank Accounts, Credit Cards or Pre-paid Mobile Vouchers (GiftMate). At the time of PayMate registration or buying a GiftMate voucher, customers can choose a secure 4-digit PIN to authorize all future transactions.

Speaking on this occasion, Mr. Avijit Nanda, President of TimesofMoney said, “Payments over mobile are secure because robust authentication is used to ensure high quality standards. The convenience of paying over the mobile brings more customers into the considered set of e-commerce users. The propagation of the mobile device in our country is among the highest in the world at 35% and growing. Thus, this is a very big set of customers that becomes eligible to buy, sell and transact by enabling their device with payment options.”

Mr. Ajay Adiseshann, Founder & MD, PayMate said “The marriage of online commerce with the mobile presents a great opportunity for stakeholders and end customers. The mobile device could be the perfect catalyst for e-commerce in India. We have more innovations to follow for added customer convenience and security.”

About DirecPay:

DirecPay from TimesofMoney is a bank neutral payment gateway solution for merchants to facilitate online shopping across a spectrum of banks & credit cards. It currently has a customer base of 200 leading merchants across the country and allows a merchant to access all the credit card & net banking platforms integrated with various banks. The customer does not need to hold a merchant account with any particular bank. The fund transfer is electronically (EFT) done into the desired merchant account. This portal is backed by a round the clock customer service support and enables merchants to conduct business with ANYONE, ANYWHERE, ANYTIME. The service is provided at www.direcpay.com DirecPay FAQs

DirecPay’s client list comprises of leading banks (SBI, Axis Bank, ICICI bank, Yes Bank, Kotak Bank, HDFC Bank and the likes) for Debit Cards and Net Banking and payment processors like Visa, Master Card and Diners Club.

About PayMate:

PayMate is the first-of-its-kind mobile payment platform which lets you link your mobile phone to a bank account, credit card or a prepaid account – turning your mobile phone into a secure payment tool to be used anytime, anywhere. PayMate’s hybrid SMS and IVR based transaction platform along with its BREW and j2ME application suite offers unparalleled simplicity making it usable on even the most basic handsets, across all telecom operators. PayMate’s list of security certifications includes compliances such as PCI DSS 1.2, PA-DSS 1.2 and Govt. Of India’s Cert-in, certifying its systems, processes and infrastructure with banking grade security. PayMate has operations in USA, UAE, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Africa & Eastern Europe and an ecosystem of over 15,000 merchants offering mobile payments to their customers. PayMate has tie-ups with over 22 banks in India including SBI, IDBI Bank, Standard Chartered Bank, Corporation Bank, ABN Amro Bank to name a few, and has also tied up with Galileo to offer its 6,000+ agents a remote payment collection solution via mobile. In the US PayMate has partnered with leading transaction service provider- Infonox to offer merchant mobile POS solutions and is steadily foraying into mobile money transfer as part of its inclusive banking roll-outs.

To know more visit www.paymate.in