Mobile Money Africa

Vodafone,last month signed an agreement with Afric Xpress (AX) to introduce txtnpay services which would allow Vodafone customers to purchase airtime anytime, anywhere via sms message to short code 1075.

The mobile phone-based secured and convenient payment system, created by New York-based Afric Xpress, would also enable registered users to send money to anyone with a mobile phone, pay utility bills, buy pre-paid airtime, check bank accounts and purchase goods and services.

Mr. Nvalaye Korouma, Chief Executive Officer of Afric Xpress, who signed on behalf of his company, said the prospective users would have to register with any of the over 400 agents across the country and create an electronic wallet into which they would make a flexible deposit.

“To open a txtnpay wallet one needs to fill the physical registration form and present a valid photo ID copy for verification and a text message with your registration details will be sent to your phone,” he said.

He said the approved agents of txtnpay were banks, internet cafes and other outlets that were already in partnership with AX to offer services, adding that these partners were carefully selected after a rigorous screening process.

Mr. Korouma said from early 2009, when AX started operations in Ghana, it had processed more than half a million transactions via its txtnpay platform, adding that the agents could confirm the security and efficiency of the system.

Mr. David Venn, CEO of Vodafone Ghana, said he was confident that the service was innovative and would ensure convenience and safety for its customers.

“Now when your credit finishes at even 02.00 hours in the morning you can send a text message to 1075 at the standard sms cost and receive credit on your phone instantly,” he said.

Afric xpress is an electronic payment solution provider focused on mobile payment systems particular in collaboration with telecom operators in Africa.

Ghana is its first country of operation in Africa.

Splash Mobile Money Limited (“Splash”), a leading mobile payment system provider, and MoreMagic Solutions, a leading mobile payments platform provider, announced today the expansion of Sierra Leone’s first mobile money transfer system, enabled by MoreMagic Solutions industry-leading MWallet platform. Splash is now available from all network operators in Sierra Leone, including Africell, Comium, and Zain, enabling customers to freely trade across mobile operators. In addition, Splash customers in Sierra Leone can now receive payments from employers, and pay for goods and services by sending splash-cash to merchants, in addition to sending money using the mobile phone.

Splash Mobile Money and MoreMagic Solutions launched pilot operation in Sierra Leone on September 16, 2009, and in less than 4 months have seen over 12,000 clients enroll to the service. Splash is available in agency locations in all major cities around the country and virtually every Chiefdom of Sierra Leone. To send money, the customer registers with an agent and loads money into the Splash account. The customer can then send that money to another mobile phone user, using just text messages.

“The key distinction of our service is that clients can freely trade across mobile operators and thus, in markets where multiple operators co-exist, the service creates more opportunity for commercial growth and individual economic empowerment,” said Ben Farren, Director, Splash. “We are pleased that the ease-of-use and reliability of the MoreMagic Solutions platform has allowed Splash to expand with new operators and functionality, resulting in dramatically increasing take rates among Sierra Leoneans.”

“Splash’s success demonstrates that mobile phone customers in Sierra Leone have welcomed the chance to keep cash secure and convenient, even as they travel far from home to support their families,” said Pankaj Gulati, chairman and CEO, MoreMagic Solutions. “MoreMagic Solutions is pleased to support Splash as the service expands, not only with new operators, but also with increased mCommerce functionality for the customer.”

Splash

Launched in early 2008, Splash Mobile Money Limited, designs and delivers mobile payment solutions in West Africa. Splash is a Sierra Leone-based company and is Sierra Leone’s first and only cross network mobile banking system.

MoreMagic Solutions

With deployments in more than 60 countries worldwide, MoreMagic Solutions offers transaction platforms for mobile operators, financial institutions, content providers, and distributors, enabling consumers to purchase goods and services on demand using a mobile phone, POS, or web. The MoreMagic Solutions high-throughput payment engine and pre-packaged applications enable revenue-generating services, including mobile recharge and mobile money transfer, both domestic and international; mobile banking; bill payment; and mobile commerce; with integration into diverse network environments, languages, and currencies. Through MoreMagic Solutions worldwide distribution, MNO-branded services are available for out-of-country customers, enabling communications with relatives back home, and increased usage on mobile networks worldwide.

www.splash-cash.com

www.moremagic.com

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 (37) March 10th,2010

Hundreds of Zain Telecommunications and Zenith Bank workers, as well as subscribers and customers, on Saturday 23rd January 2010, held a thrilling float parade along the major streets of Freetown.The march pass commenced from the far east and ended at the west end of the capital city.

The procession held to celebrate the companies’ new ‘Zap’ product was aimed at sensitizing the general populace about the mobile baking service launched by Zain and Zenith Bank.

Zain’s Public Relations Executive, June Rose-Johnson said, during the session, that the parade was very essential in the spreading of Zap’s message to its numerous subscribers across the city.”We want to take our value added products to the doorsteps of our valued subscribers, thus the parade,” she pointed out in an ecstatic mood.

According to June Rose-Johnson, the newly launched mobile banking service is a new innovation for all Zain subscribers to enjoy the company’s ‘wonderful world’.Several subscribers interviewed lauded the two companies for making life easy for the citizenry through their numerous products.

“Zain and Zenith deserve praises as I can now send and receive money through my phone,” one Alimamy Thoronka said.Another subscriber commented that the new service will enhance long life, prosperity and excitement for subscribers.

Zap Mobile-Commerce will enable customers to access their money faster and more conveniently. The service helps customers to pay bills and pay for goods and services at all times. They will also receive and send money to friends and loved ones.All Zain subscribers can sign up for free for the services by completing an application form with all Zain agents in villages, towns and cities, where Zain operates.

One of the leading and safe money transfer systems in Sierra Leone, Splash Money Transfer, has revealed plans of risking the cash sum of five million Leones to be raffled for by Splash.

Splash Money transfer on Thursday 21st January 2010 unveiled for its customers a new promotion code named “SPLASH FOR CASH”.

Splash for Cash is a unique and new promotion designed by Splash for users of Sierra Leone’s pioneering cross-operator mobile money service.

The promotion will last from 18th January to 31st March 2010. Every two weeks, Splash awards one lucky winner with the sum of Le1, 000,000 (One Million Leones) and the winners are selected at random from customers who have made at least one Splash transaction in the last fourteen (14) days.

Customers who use the service between 18th and 31st January will be eligible for a draw to be held on the 1st February 2010.

In the second draw, customers who use the service between 1st and 14th February 2010 are eligible for a draw to be held on the 15th of February 2010, while in the third draw customers who use the service between 15th and 28th February are eligible for the draw to be held on 1st March.

For the fourth draw, customers who use the service between 1st and 14th March 2010 are eligible for the 15th March to be followed by the fifth draw in which customers who use the service between 15th and 29th March will be eligible for the draw on 30th March 2010.

Ese Awhotu

A former staff of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and Adviser to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on the development and implementation of the Microfinance Certification Program in the country, Peter van Dijk, has revealed that 60 per cent of Nigerians are under banked.

Dijk, who made this disclosure in his paper “Inclusive Finance and Savings Mobilisation” presented at the 4th Annual Microfinance Conference and Entrepreneurship Awards at the weekend in Abuja advised the Nigerian government to use all the technology and knowledge it has to address the situation and reduce poverty among its citizens.

He said Nigeria has the best and most important precondition to build a sustainable and inclusive financial sector.

The country, Dijk added, has many people who are economically active with an economy of scale needed for an improvement outreach but government is yet to integrate this huge potential into building an inclusive financial sector.

“Nigeria has the resources financially and non financially to make a change” he observed, adding that “You now have to take it into you own hands: integrate the huge potential you have with around 60 per cent of your population still being un-under banked, use all the technology and knowledge you have and build an inclusive financial sector which will help to reduce the poverty among your citizens”.

Dijk called on the highest executive level of government and in particular, the Federal Ministry of Finance to rapidly make the National Microfinance Policy a coherent document in the sense of the inclusive definition of microfinance and integrate it into the national financial sector development strategy FSS2020.

Aruna Turay

After a successful initial pilot phase, Splash Mobile Money is now operated nationwide.

This disclosure was made by the Director of Splash Money Transfer Limited, Mr. Sheka Forna, in an interview with the Awareness Times on Wednesday 13th January 2010.

According to him, Splash customers in Sierra Leone, can now enjoy Splash facilities from every corner of the country.

“We are already present in thirty (30) agency locations around the country and also have a presence in each and every Chiefdom of Sierra Leone,” said Mr. Forna.

He said over twelve thousand (12,000) subscribers have now joined the scheme, adding that this is clearly indicative of the pent-up demand for financial services in the country.

“This is a made-in-Sierra Leone success story and the support of the mobile operators, GTBank, NATCOM, and the Government of Sierra Leone have been instrumental in giving life to this local entrepreneurial venture,” the Director noted, adding, “Our challenge now is to bring the service to all corners of the country and to build our client, agent, and merchant base”.

In another development, the Director added, Splash Mobile Money has also introduced a number of innovations for its mobile money platform including the ‘Merchant and Payroll Modules’. He said this innovation will allow Splash clients to pay for goods and services by sending Splash Cash to merchants through a simple secure command. The expansion of this system will make a significant contribution to easy and secure commercial transactions and will also make transactions, large or small handled with ease.

The Director further informed that the modules will also allow employers to remit salaries and other employee payments quickly and safely to any part of the country without having to handle or dispatch cheques or cash, adding that any employee with a mobile phone will be able to receive payments from their employer promptly from any part of the country.

“These two new services are designed to provide flexibility and competitive advantage to the Sierra Leone business community” Mr. Forna concluded.

GROWTH DRIVES MIGRATION OF EXISTING SERVICES TO REDKNEE’S REAL-TIME CONVERGED BILLING AND CUSTOMER CARE SOLUTION

Redknee Solutions Inc, a leading provider of mission-critical software and solutions for communications service providers, today announced that it has secured a contract with a West African wireless operator to deploy Redknee’s Turnkey Converged Billing (TCB) and Customer Care solution with Airtime Reseller.

Redknee’s TCB solution will replace the service provider’s legacy billing system, enabling the operator to differentiate its service offerings and provide an enhanced subscriber experience. With this solution, the network service provider will be able to support advanced personalized services and payment methods, including voucherless top-ups for its predominantly prepaid mobile subscriber base.

“Redknee’s Turnkey Converged Billing has once again been chosen as the solution of choice, replacing the operator’s legacy prepaid and postpaid billing systems in support of business requirements, new services requirements and growth demands.” said Redknee CEO Lucas Skoczkowski. “At Redknee, we are continuing to take market share in the real-time converged billing space as we advance our position in line with our growth strategy – across the high-growth markets of Africa, the Middle East and Asia Pacific.”

Redknee’s Turnkey Converged Billing solution for prepaid and postpaid voice, data, and messaging delivers provisioning, real-time rating and charging, billing, and customer care services, along with the tools that allow for fast and flexible pricing, bundling and launching of individualized promotions and new services that are specific to an operator’s markets. The solution brings the required scalability and configurability to support the future growth of both new services and subscribers without the costly customizations required by legacy billing systems.

Redknee’s Mobile Money Airtime Reseller is part of the TCB solution and enables voucherless, prepaid wireless airtime top-up, addressing the needs of markets like West Africa. This saves money for the operator, provides more flexible top-up denominations for the subscriber, and contributes to the growing economy of Africa by creating a virtual and innovative dealer channel.

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

Globacom Limited a leading telecommunication company, Since it launched its services on August 29, 2003, has been at the forefront of revolutionary changes in the GSM sector in Africa.
Globacom offer various services in ICT and Telecom sector in Africa like GPRS-based service, 3G Technology, Broadband Internet Services, Mobile Internet, Tracking System, GSM Services, etc

Globacom Limited is seeking to hire high flying professionals in marketing to fill the following vacant position in West Africa.

Position: Business Development Manager Mobile Money Transfer

BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT MANAGER MOBILE MONEY TRANSFER

Job Profile:
• Articulate a business plan, pricing model and other features of the Mobile Money Transfer service
• Develop agent partnership business models and work closely with the channels/sales team
• Steer the communication and branding build up and ensure high visibility of the Mobile Money Transfer Service across Nigeria.

Required Experience:
• 4-5 years of relevant experience in Product Management/Money Transfer Marketing in a telecom/ Financial Service

Qualifications:
• Bachelor’s degree in Business Management, Statistics, Mathematics, Engineering or any other relevant disciplines.
• Possession of post qualification degree in business management will be added advantage

Additional skills:
• Excellent communication and presentation skills
• Strong Interpersonal skills
• Excellent negotiation skills
• Proficiency in the use of Microsoft Excel and SQL/Microsoft Access
• Knowledge of BI Tools is required for Head Analytic and Research

Method of Application:
Qualified candidates should e-mail their resume with a passport photograph if possible (quoting the relevant references for the Vacancy to: marketing.job@gloworld.com
Only short-listed candidates will be contacted.

Application Deadline is 15th December, 2009.