Mobile Money Africa

Mpesa

Safaricom Ltd., Kenya’s biggest mobile-phone operator, said full-year profit jumped 44 percent as revenue from data services including MPESA, its mobile money- transfer service, increased.

Net income climbed to 15.15 billion shillings ($190 million) in the 12 months through March from 10.5 billion shillings a year earlier, the Nairobi-based company said in a statement on its website today. Sales jumped 19 percent to 83.96 billion shillings.

Data revenue increased 72.8 percent to account for 18.7 of overall revenue compared to 12.9 a year earlier. The number of MPESA users rose to 9.48 million from 6.48 million, with person- to-person transactions during the year to March 2010 being 28.59 billion shillings, the statement said.

Safaricom was expected to report net income of 13.8 billion shillings for the year through March, according to a median estimate of seven analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.

Safaricom, 40 percent-owned by Vodafone Plc, began trading its stock in June 2008 to become the largest company by value on the Nairobi Stock Exchange. It competes with Telkom Kenya Ltd., a joint venture between France Telecom SA and the Kenyan government, Kuwait-based Zain and Essar Telecom Kenya Ltd.

“New products like M-Kesho bode well for them,” Ewart Salins, regional chief executive officer of African Alliance Securities Ltd., said in an interview.

M-Kesho

Introduced May 18, M-Kesho, which means “mobile tomorrow” in Swahili, is a mobile phone-based bank-account service that will enable Equity Bank Ltd., Kenya’s biggest lender by bank accounts, to use Safaricom’s more than 17,500 MPESA agents as mobile-banking agents.

Kenya decided not to implement revised rules on competition in the nation’s telecommunications industry, Communications Minister Bitange Ndemo said today. This is “really good news for Safaricom,” Salins said. The regulations stipulated that customer promotions and price increases or reductions could only be introduced with the Communications Commission’s approval.

Safaricom’s operating profit margin increased to 26.9 percent from 22.9 percent.

“You are looking at a company with successful strategy and innovation,” Judd Murigi, head of research at Nairobi-based CFC Stanbic Financial Services Ltd. said in an interview in Nairobi today. “There is better management of margins. The company has weathered the tough competition.”

Customers

Safaricom’s customer numbers increased 18 percent to 15.79 million in the year. Market share declined to 78.3 percent from 79.1 percent a year earlier, the company said.

Capital expenditure in the year to March 31 was 17.43 billion shillings and will be increased to 23 billion shillings in the next financial year, Chris Tiffin, the chief finance officer, said today.

Safaricom, which received regulatory approval to sell bonds worth 12 billion shillings last October, will sell a second tranche this year, Tiffin said. In October, the company sold bonds worth 5 billion shillings.

“We will more than likely be targeting quarter three of this calendar year,” he said.

Safaricom shares gained as much as 5.6 percent before trading 0.9 percent lower at 5.35 shillings by 11:22 a.m.

txtNation

txtNation and Failsafe Payments Certo Payment Gateway are proud to announce a partnership today that adds additional 70 new markets for Certo Payment Gateways online mobile Billing coverage through a new partnership with Telco Mobile billing provider txtNation’s award winning JunglePay service.

This new partnership enables customers in a total of over 70 markets to purchase the digital products they want and pay for them through their local mobile phone provider account. Over 200 individual providers Mobile Network Operators can now be used to clear web payments are now live on Failsafe Payments platform.

Both Merchants and Merchant Service Providers (MSP`s) worldwide can now enjoy a true one stop integration platform to access all integrated Certo Payment Gateway`s partners and services.

According to a 2008 study by Javelin Strategy and Research, over 75% of decisive consumers would prefer to add small online purchases to their existing telephone, broadband or mobile bills as an alternative to using credit or debit cards.

Michael Whelan, txtNation of txtNation adds, “Failsafe Payments adds a whole new dimension to txtNation’s, JunglePay service. By interfacing JunglePay to Failsafe Payments Certo Payment Gateway, we bring out a large network of mobile operators to bear across Certo Payment Gateway`s fantastic brand.”

“Integrating txtNation`s JunglePay further enhances the big value of using our Certo Payment Gateway for multiple banks, alternative payment methods, fraud scrubbing 3-D Secure and much more all integrated into one single platform.” says Patrick Sallnert, Chief Operating Officer for Failsafe Payments EU.

“We are continuing to integrate Mobile Billing providers to offer the Merchants and MSP`s worldwide that uses Certo Payment Gateway a simple technical solution and excellent coverage when enable Mobile Billing services for their customers.” says John R. Williams, Sr., President for Failsafe Payments North America.

Using a customisable interface, and extremely easy installation with the Certo Payment Gateway, JunglePay is a first-class billing application that also offers a comprehensive API so you can create your own unique billing platform.

This partnership between Failsafe Payments and txtNation bridges internet commerce to familiar mobile billing mechanisms, to enable merchants and MSP`s to increase sales by allowing customers to pay through their mobile phone accounts- pre-paid or post-paid.

About Failsafe Payments

Failsafe Payments is a Merchant Service Provider (MSP) based in Nicosia, Cyprus and Cleveland, Ohio and established in 2007 by a very experienced team within local and international e-payments.

About Certo Payment Gateway

Certo Payment Gateway are integrated into multiple local and international payment brands, payment options, banks, MSP`s, alternative payments, shopping carts, order systems, 3DSecure and 3rd party services such as advanced fraud scrubbing and loyalty programs and can be used by both Merchants and MSP`s.

About txtNation

txtNation is an award-winning solutions provider across billing, content and mobile messaging platforms.

JunglePay is a straightforward application developed by txtNation, for charging your customers online. Offering three payment options in the form of Premium SMS, phone billing and credit card, there is always a way to pay.

Based on txtNation’s mature mobile payment platform, JunglePay is a robust, secure way to charge your customers. Whether you want to charge for access to your membership area, points in an online game, or in many other online scenarios, JunglePay can help merchants.

txtNation’s global reach means we can facilitate mobile messaging services and products across North America, Europe, Australia and Africa. txtNation have developed strong partnerships with many major industry leaders to ensure our solutions are compatible, well-connected and secure.

Uganda, a subsidiary of South Africa’s MTN, expects users of mobile money services to grow by three-quarters by 2012 giving people in rural areas the chance to build businesses and safely transfer money.

‘It has grown to a scale we never expected,’ Richard Mwami, head of mobile money at MTN Uganda told Reuters ahead of the GSMA’s Mobile Money summit in Rio de Janeiro, which kicks off on May 24.

The expansion of mobile money is a trend that is being played out in developing countries around the world.

MTN Uganda expects more than 2 million users of its mobile money services by the end of the year and 3.5 million users by 2012.

‘We currently have registered 890,000 mobile money users, around 16 percent of our subscriber base,’ Mwami said.

MTN Uganda has a market share of 60 percent. Kuwait mobile operator Zain and Orange also operate in east Africa’s third largest economy.

Access to mobile financial services such as transfers for food, shopping or to send money home removes the need for long, costly and often cumbersome journeys to move money around and allows people to store cash as well.

It also helps village businesses thrive and gives entrepreneurs a safe way to transport money.

Aletha Ling, executive director of Fundamo, the world’s leading provider of software and services for mobile money to network operators such as MTH Uganda and banks, said the use of mobile financial services ‘changes the entire ecosystem of a village.

‘A woman who has a fishing boat, smokes the fish, (moves) the money up and down the country would get robbed on the way and that nearly wiped out the business,’ she said, adding such problems are eliminated with mobile money.

Some $195 million have passed through the platform since its launch in March 2009 with around 11.8 million transactions since then, Mwami said.

Juniper Research has estimated that more than 500 million people around the world will use mobile money transfer services by 2014, principally in developing countries.

The telecom trade body GSMA has predicted that operators could make $5 billion from financial services by ‘banking’ 364 million unbanked people by 2012.

In Kenya 11 percent of the country’s gross domestic product is moved via mobile money through Safaricom’s mobile phone based money transfer service known as M-Pesa, said Greg Reeve, head of mobile payment solution at Vodafone, which partners with Safaricom.

‘We will be launching in South Africa and you will see some other announcements soon,’ he added.

Vodafone also offers M-Pesa mobile money in Afghanistan and Tanzania.

In Kenya, it has also introduced a new service known as M-Kesho, which is available to M-Pesa users and Kenya’s Equity Bank’s account holders, allowing users to gain access to credit, earn interest on deposits and buy insurance.

Kenya’s second largest mobile operator Zain said Thursday it plans to invest over 350 million shillings (4.8 million U.S. dollars) to roll out mobile transfer service, Zap outlets countrywide to extend its reach.

Zain Kenya Managing Director Rene Meza told a news conference in Nairobi said that the mobile operator also plans to test its 3G network in July in Nairobi, Mombasa and other commercially viable areas in anticipation of the review of the 3G spectrum.

“We have been doing very well on Zap with over 500,000 customers transacting 250 million shillings on a monthly basis.

“However, we are aware of the challenges we have in terms of Zap outlets availability,” he said.

Meza said Zain Kenya expects industry regulator, the Communications Commission of Kenya (CCK) to reduce the 3G spectrum which currently is at 25 million U.S. dollars.

Zain, Telkom Kenya and Essar Telkom have disputed the fee saying it is exorbitantly high, but market leader Safaricom, the only player that had paid the amount for the licence, maintains they must be treated equally.

“Our data business has grown by over 35 per cent year on year at the end of the first quarter of 2010.

“This is going to be the driver for growth going forward,” Meza said.

Meanwhile, Zain Kenya has quickly moved to take advantage of the recently introduced communication regulations by launching a 50 percent reduction in tariffs in a bid to woo new customers.

Meza said the new rates would help the operator aggressively go after the mass market after years of mainly focusing on corporate clients.

The move will see Zain customers pay three shillings for inter network calls and six shillings to any other network between 1850 GMT and 0300GMT.

Meza attributed the ability to reduce the rates to “optimisation” of Zain’s cost structure, which has made the mobile operator cut its costs by 25 percent.

He said most Kenyans want to make most calls from 1500GMT and what this means to the ordinary citizen is that they will have affordable rates and low calling rates to other networks.

The shift now directly pits it against its three competitors, market leader Safaricom, Orange Kenya and Essar Kenya’s Yu, in what is already a fierce fight for the low-end market.

The shift in strategy comes barely a month after its parent company, Zain Group, sold all but two of its African operations to Bharti Airtel of India, in a 10.7 billion dollars deal due to be completed this month.

Geoffrey York – Globe and Mail.

A year ago, Tsepho Ronald was a part-time carpenter in Soweto, watching his jobless friends getting into trouble with the law. He saw jail looming for himself if he didn’t find a better life.

So he decided to become a “Wizzkid” – one of about 4,500 unemployed young people across South Africa who have been trained as sales agents for Wizzit, a fast-growing mobile banking company. It’s challenging work, but he’s learning a lot about the banking industry.

“Most people are scared to open a bank account,” says the 24-year-old salesman. “They say, ‘The bank will eat our money.’” Wizzit and other mobile financial services, including the popular M-Pesa in Kenya, are overcoming those barriers and helping low-income Africans make financial transactions across long distances with their cellphones, reducing their travel costs and eliminating the risks of cash, while avoiding most banking fees.

It’s part of a phenomenon that has people in Africa adopting new technologies that have been slower to catch on in more developed parts of the world, where individuals and institutions cling to older, existing infrastructure. People in Africa who have never used an ATM card, banked online or even had a bank account are using their mobile phone for financial transactions, while Internet users are skipping cable modems and going straight to wireless broadband.

In Soweto, Mr. Ronald says he is signing up dozens of new customers a month. It takes only five minutes and an investment of less than $10 to open a Wizzit bank account on any ordinary cellphone – even a shared cellphone. The virtual bank has well over 300,000 customers across South Africa (although it doesn’t divulge exact numbers) and is expanding into Romania, Zambia, Tanzania and other emerging markets. The vast majority of its customers have never had a bank account before.

“Five years ago, when we launched, the big banks were not convinced that mobile banking would ever work,” said Brian Richardson, co-founder and managing director of Wizzit. “In fact they said it wouldn’t work – they said nobody would make a payment on a cellphone when they had a perfectly good PC in front of them. Their mindset was really focused on their existing bank customers.”

After Wizzit pioneered the technology, the banks caved in and created their own mobile banking services, which now have about five million customers in South Africa alone.

Mobile banking is a godsend for poor rural families and migrant workers, still the backbone of most African economies. They can pay bills and transfer money without the high cost of hiring a car. In Kenya, mobile money has reportedly boosted the incomes of rural households by 5 to 30 per cent.

“It becomes such a simple solution,” Mr. Richardson said. “Ten seconds on the phone and it’s an instant transfer to your mother who is 400 kilometres away, at virtually no cost. There are huge savings in time and transportation. It could be a major boost for African countries.”

It could also reduce dependence on cash. The equivalent of $2-billion in cash is kept under mattresses in South Africa alone, Mr. Richardson said. Bringing even a small percentage of it into the banking sector could be a substantial benefit to the economy.

Mr. Richardson believes mobile banking is an example of the innovations that Africa will need for its future growth. “I think there are enormous opportunities in Africa,” he said. “But I’m not sure if Western models are going to work here. It’s going to require a different way of thinking. It takes time and innovation to uncover different models and technology.”

MTN Rwanda says that transactions through the mobile money service have reached Rwf590m, barely five months after the launch of the mobile operator’s service that enable users to transfer money electronically with their phones without having to move location.

The service dubbed “MTN Mobile Money” was officially launched in February.

“People have shown interest in this service. The first impediment we are addressing is the cost of sending the money around the country,” Albert Kinuma, the head of mobile money told Business Times on Thursday.

Sending money through the service attracts a fee of Rwf250 for any transaction between Rwf1,500 and Rwf300,000 for somebody registered while the transaction cost varies between Rwf600 to Rwf4,000 for somebody unregistered.

Rwanda’s largest mobile operator by market share says within the first three months, the service has managed to attract about 83,000 users with at least 71,000 active mobile subscribers utilising the platform.

While response from the public has been positive, the biggest challenge remains the financial muscle of the dealers. The company says the success of the product largely depends on local entrepreneurs becoming partners and making the businesses grow.

“We have realised that in some instances agencies have been overwhelmed by the volumes and during the course of the day, one of the agents runs out of money,” Kinuma observed.

So far, MTN has only 201 dealers countrywide of which 80 are around Kigali.

“What we are trying to achieve is having a network that anyone in Rwanda does not have to walk more than 5 kilometres to find an agent.”

However, the official says MTN is continuously engaging the business community to increase investment into the business.

“It is something we are addressing and it is improving – we do not want to find ourselves in a situation where some agents might run out of money.”

The product in which MTN Rwanda invested over $2 million, also allows users to buy airtime once they have registered for the service.

But according to Kinuma, there are other unexploited possibilities that the money transfer service can offer such as paying utility bills and salaries.

“The first service we started with was the ability to send and receive money across the country – because it is something very simple and easy to understand for everyone – as well as the ability to purchase airtime from your phone, for yourself and other person. The next step is cash power,”

Though the mobile money transfer service –the first of its kind in the country, MTN says it is taking advantage of their wide network coverage (over 90 percent) to enhance access to financial services.

“Our target was to achieve 130,000 users on the platform by the end of the year and we are already half way the mark and we should be achieving that in the next couple of months.”Kinuma said.

Salimotu Idirrissu, a middle age woman in the North western region of Nigeria, living in Bunza local government which is 35 kilometers from the state capital shared her story with me some weeks ago. She lives in the rural town of Bunza and actively engaged in fish mongering from the local River which is seasonal in nature and some times send some to her excess processed fish during bountiful harvests to relatives in the National capital to get better prices. She coordinates her business remotely through her mobile phone.

On the advice of her customers at Abuja, She was advised to open a Bank account to enable them pay her conveniently without the need to send the money through the Cattle truck drivers (Dogo Baro) that ply the Abuja – Bunza – Birrin Kebbi route.She yielded to their advice and decided to visit the nearest Bank branch which is 35 kilometers away.

At the preferred Bank of Her choice, her application for a savings Bank account was rejected because she has no valid ID card and utility bill which are standard documentations for such account class. Despite the letter from Her Local Islamic Cleric and a Local Government origin certificate, rejected and dejected, She returned back to her rural town to face the reality of keeping cash at home and receiving her sales cash via the Dogo baro Drivers (She did not like this particularly because of the security implication of everyone in the small town knowing about her improving sales and cash at hand).

The above represents the typical situation of the unbanked in Africa’s largest Country, Nigeria, with less than 22 million Bank accounts in a country of 140 million.

The authorities are quite mindful of such challenges in Nigeria and in the last few decades, efforts has been channeled to community, rural and micro finance Banking but all met with little or no success. The MFI’s in Nigeria are largely concentrated in the urban areas and they equally compete with the large commercial banks in urban districts for a share of the market at the detriment of the rural unbanked. It is common place to see MFI’s build their branches close to the LCB’s,in same architectural style with grand furnishings and to cap it all, benchmark their service requirements like commercial Banks.

The Central Bank of Nigeria in its wisdom decided to take a deep look at mobile financial services and the last twenty four months, efforts and resources are being channeled in the sector with a view to opening more opportunities and creating formal financial access for the unbanked in rural and urban areas using the mobile channel.

Month of April witnessed the submission of proposals by interested solutions providers, technology firms and financial institutions to qualify for license short listing which results will be made public in the month of May. If Central Bank of Nigeria is able to overcome the licensing challenge and launch mobile money in Nigeria, the likes of Salimotu will not need to travel up to a distance of 35 kilometers for Basic Banking services in near future.

To understand and view some potentials services in the offing for Nigeria, visit the mobile money hub at the AITEC AFRICA Banking and Mobile Money Conference,May 11 – 12, Eko Hotel and Towers and request for free demo from firms like Celltrust, Maxim –Pro, Tagattitude, Graditim, Nihilent, Ingres, MMIT, M-Naira, Mypesa and Easipay.

Emmanuel Okoegwale
Director @ Africa Centre for mobile financial inclusion, UK – Sponsors of the mobile money hub.

Emmanuel Okoegwale

The African Centre for Mobile Financial Inclusion, a recently launched international non-profit organization registered in the UK, will be hosting the first African Mobile Money Hub at the AITEC Banking and Mobile Money Event at the new Eko Conference Centre, Eko over 11-12 May.
Twelve months ago, at the same event in Lagos, AITEC hosted Financial Inclusion Innovation Hub was hosted by mobile money Africa where some of the players shared their plans and concepts with participants. Since then the young innovators have been working on developing their ideas and some are now a reality and this time round conference participants will be able to experience live demos and may even test some of these innovations that will help accelerate access to formal financial inclusion to millions who are currently unbanked but do own a mobile phone.
According to Sean Moroney, AITEC AFRICA’s Chairman, the Mobile Money Hub will be a major attraction at the annual event and some leading solutions providers from India, Ghana, Lagos and Abuja are already confirmed to showcase their solutions at the hub.
Profiles of some providers that are already confirmed for the Hub are:

PAYSTAR is a direct distribution company. It is an exclusive new business that provides a state-of-the-art financial opportunity for “virtual entrepreneurship”. It is a direct distribution network dedicated to helping success-minded individuals achieves financial independence through helping others earn more income and achieve lasting success in their lives, careers, and businesses.

Ingres is focused on the unbanked and the rural areas as a way of improving the lives of a majority of the Africans by eliminating multiple paperwork often associated with opening bank accounts., while enabling an environment with the basic functionality of being able to transfer and receive funds from loved ones and benefactors in the rural and urban areas.
This in turn creates additional revenue streams for the microfinance banks and contributes to Africa????s move towards achieving its millennium development goals.

MyPesa is a mobile payment system that enables businesses to accept payments from users with mobile phones. It can be used for a wide range of services. MyPesa can be customized to suit your business model and quickly make it possible for you to collect payments from millions of customers who own a mobile phone.

CellTrust SecureSMS provides de-facto two-factor authentication with a combination of the device ID and a secure PIN sent via AES encrypted SecureSMS representing a cutting-edge, disruptive technology which makes the need for today’s commonly used two-factor authentication scenarios obsolete. With CellTrust’s Mobile Banking and Finance solution, no longer is security an obstacle and no longer are multiple technology providers or an expensive infrastructure required.
The Secure Mobile Banking and Finance Solution from CellTrust provides an automatic, transparent and comprehensive audit trail meeting most major compliancy requirements.

Tagattitude’s NSDT allows a phone to be used the same way a credit/debit card is used. The phone can be used to withdraw money from an ATM, pay at a merchant POS terminal, conduct peer-to-peer transfers and payments, remit money locally or internationally and pay for online goods and services. NSDT uses the voice channel of a phone to accomplish this. Tagattitude has several patents and has won numerous international awards for the development of NSDT.

MMIT Mobile Wallet provides EASY ACCESS to the financial system via Airtime credit which literally, is everywhere. Just buy the credit (from any network), load it through a simple but secure process onto the Mobile Wallet for storage for a rainy day or immediately transfer to the mobile wallet of a family member in need, living far away; or into a microfinance bank account as part of loan repayments; or into the mobile wallet of a small or large-size merchant. Exit points depend on the final terminal point of use – it could be the account of a microfinance institution or it could be an ATM through which the funds are transferred as cash out.

In addition to the Expo, which will include the Hub, the event includes a two-day conference with an impressive line-up of expert speakers from 13 countries. For the full conference programme and to register as a delegate log on to www.aitecafrica.com or email info@aitecafrica.com.To participate in the mobilemoney hub,please email emmanuel@mobilemoneyafrica.com

John Power, sponsors of the 2010 Kenyan Derby, today announced a major innovation in Sports Betting in Kenya, with the release of its MPESA betting system, which now allows clients from all over Kenya to place bets on international football events using only their mobile phone. Previously sports fans would have to have visited a licensed betting premises, now it can be done by phone, from anywhere in Kenya. John Power, Managing Director of John Power Kenya said “We believe this system will revolutionise sports betting in Kenya, and takes the market to new heights. We are very much looking forward to providing Kenyans opportunities to support their teams”.

The system has been specifically designed for the Kenyan market, and utilises Safaricom’s MPESA system. Customers simply MPESA their stake to the dedicated number, and then make their bets from advertised coupons using a simple code. For example, Manchester United against Liverpool is advertised as Match number 101. A home win (i.e. Manchester to win) is identified as #1, an away win (i.e. Liverpool to win) as #2 and a draw as #0. Following this the client identifies how much they want to stake with a * and the sum they want to stake. Thus, 100 shillings on Manchester to win becomes in this example 101#1*100. Reference numbers are issued via SMS and the bet is trackable. To collect their winnings, winner simply text W and the amount they wish to withdraw, which is settled via MPESA.

On opening an account with John Power, customers also get access to their account over the internet, using a PIN number to identify themselves. John Power said “This system integrates the internet, the SMS network and the simple practice of sports betting like never before, MPESA really opens up new opportunities for betting across Kenya”. Mr Power also said that if MPESA sports betting becomes as popular as he hopes, that John Power will be supporting community sports projects acoss Kenya: “Kenyans love football, we’d really like to see Kenya taking a team to the next world cup”.

John Powers dedicated number for accepting bets is 0719 315 108 and the website is www.johnpowerkenya.com. Otherwise John Power can be found in Mombasa at Bora Bora Arcade on the Malindi Road, North Coast, or the Ngong Racecourse.

New solution can connect to users on mobile operators or web sites for large-scale implementation of mobile financial services and can adjust to extremes of network traffic.

Accenture has announced a new secure, high-speed, high-volume mobile financial transaction software solution for telecommunications service providers and large banks. The mobile money management solution allows firms to reach customers through existing mobile operator networks, web and Internet channels and mobile devices, regardless of the device their customers prefer to use.

It also allows customers to conduct traditional banking transactions, automatically adjusts to fluctuations in network traffic, such as sudden peaks of traffic at the beginning of a business day, and can facilitate thousands of simultaneous transactions. Since it uses “cloud-like” technology, the solution can be launched quickly and economically and scales easily. Customers can be segmented by brand, product or language. The solution is now available worldwide, and is a key element in Accenture’s focus on mobility services.

“Mobile operators and banks are facing increasing pressure to provide mobile money services on mobile phones to all users,” said Andy Zimmerman, global managing director of Mobility Services at Accenture. “If they do not provide these services they risk losing subscribers and being eliminated from the payment process. Accenture’s communications industry experience uniquely positions us to support businesses that want to get into the kind of high-volume mobile money applications that can contribute significantly to their customer service and help generate new revenue streams.”

The mobile money management solution makes it possible to process micropayments in real time, which helps companies take advantage of new business models, while potentially opening new streams of revenue. Micropayments are used to process small transaction amounts that would otherwise severely limit profit, or even cost more than the actual product if processed as traditional card transactions.

This type of payment is typically used by Internet merchants who sell content – or other intangible goods – that cost between a few cents and a few dollars each, such as music, pay-per-play games, newspapers, articles, reports, small computer programs, tickets and postcards.

The mobile money management solution incorporates the Fundamo Enterprise Mobile Financial Services (EMFS) platform and combines it with Accenture’s Service Delivery Platform (SDP). Mobile money management is available from Accenture Mobility Operated Services, an Accenture business unit which provides services for mobile operators, financial institutions and large retailers to help enable new, revenue-generating services delivered through mobile channels, such as ticketing, loyalty, mobile marketing and mobile money.

Fundamo is the world’s largest specialist mobile financial services provider. Fundamo’s EMFS platform is powered by technology that already delivers secure mobile financial services to consumers around the globe.

“Mobile money management is about businesses facilitating financial services,” said Zimmerman. “Because it involves elements such as financial regulations, as well as customers’ money, and personal details, mobile money must meet extremely high standards in terms of performance and security.

“By installing the Fundamo solution onto our industry-leading SDP, Accenture helps provide businesses with an industry-tested way to deliver reliable, secure, mobile services to their diverse customer segments. This is an important advancement for the mobile financial services industry.”

Accenture is offering the mobile money management solution as a non-branded, “white label” capability, which allows businesses to retain their brand with their customers. The solution is offered under a transaction-based pricing model, which means businesses pay only for the number of customers who use the capability.

Accenture offers mobile money management as a managed service, hosted at Accenture data centers around the world. As a result, businesses do not have to invest in additional infrastructure, which reduces start-up costs.

“In the wake of the financial crisis, mobile finance has become a critical frontier for bank industry growth,” said Noel Gordon, global managing director of Accenture’s banking practice. “Consumers are looking for more convenience, simplicity and manageability in their financial lives. The banks that will win customer loyalty will be those with the technologies needed to deliver world-class financial services over mobile devices.”