Citation and commencement these guidelines may be cited as the bank of uganda mobile money guidelines, 20 and shall come into force on october 1, 20. Today, the vice president dr mahamudu bawumia has launched the first mobile money payments interoperability system in ghana. Public disclosure authorized building inclusive payment. The types of accounts included for each country are listed in digital. Assessing the value that the interconnection of mobile money services would create for customers and operators. Low levels of financial inclusion represent a barrier to socioeconomic development in developing countries. The classic example is the nonbankissued mobile money account that is popular across regions such as africa, but the definition extends to bankissued, lowvalue accounts in markets such as mexico and pakistan. Bawumia launches phase two of mobile money interoperability. Mobile money, also referred to as mpesa, was first introduced in tanzania in 2008. Regulatory impact on mobile money and financial inclusion.
Background these guidelines address mobile money issues. For more information on full subscription access, contact us. The system was launched by vice president of ghana, dr. It was incorporated in may 2007 with a mandate to implement and manage interoperable payment system infrastructures for banks and non bank financial institutions in ghana. Since then, over 40m mobile money accounts have been registered making 95m mobile money transactions per month in total, transacting an average of usd1.
Transfer money from an ezwich card to a mobile money wallet ezwich to wallet e2w. Mobile financial services accessing levels of interoperability. The ghana interbank payment and settlement systems limited ghipss is a wholly owned subsidiary of the bank of ghana. Interoperability between mobile money operators is an indicator of the growing maturity of the mobile money market and evolving service offerings. The volume went up from 1,118,210 in the first quarter of last year to 5,126,919 transactions, according to figures. An innovative mobile money investment product, namely. How mobile money interoperability in ghana affects fees. Assessing the value that the interconnection of mobile money services would create for customers and operators introduction and summary in just a few short years, the mobile money industry has undergone a remarkable spurt of growth. First quarter mobile money interoperability up by over 350.
In many markets, it is no longer a question of if, but. Mobile money operators typically leverage an agent network to. Mobile financial services in ghana subregional workshop on mobile money in west africa. User insights in enabling interoperable mobile money. Interoperability is considered important because of its potential effects on consumers, businesses and the economy. On the contrary, depending on the maturity of a countrys financial services market, different services are more likely to prevail than others. It includes documents available from cgap, usaid, the world bank, gsma, and other organizations that are doing research in the realm of mobile money. Multilateral agreements may include some providers, but may not necessarily include a majority of providers in a given market.
Mobile money interoperability records 800,000 transactions. The role of mobile money in financial inclusion in the. Ghanas first mobile money interoperability system deepens financial inclusion and promotes cashless agenda. Mobile providers in tanzania began to interconnect their services first with a bilateral arrangement between tigo and airtel in september 2014 with the official commercial launch in february 2015. Although technology is not a major barrier for mobile money services, the applications and platforms need to be both telcograde in terms of uptime and responsiveness, and bankgrade in terms of accuracy, security, and auditability.
Analysis of pakistan, bangladesh, india, serbia and. Mobile money services started in kenya in 2007 through mpesa m for. Review of interoperability and regulations of mobile money. Mpesa, safaricom kenyas mobile money product, was until recently entirely non interoperable. It can be used on both smartphones and basic feature phones. Regulatory impact on mobile money and financial inclusion in. Yet despite the over 100 mobile money deployments around the world, only a handful have reached economies of scale. The mobile money interoperability also opens way for fintechs and other financial institutions to come out with various products that will run on the system and create convenience for customers. These regulations may be cited as the banking money. Mobile money payments have been slower to take hold in advanced countries, but are predicted to grow rapidly in the near future.
Interoperability should not be confused with interconnection, which is the ability to technically connect with another network. Zambia has begun to reach financially excluded families as cell networks expand, providing mobile money. The product is a collaboration between mtn ghana, ecobank capital ghana and ecobank ghana. Please provide your account email and password below new users can sign up for a public account. The marked increase in mobile money usage is not unique to ghana. The socioeconomic impact of mobile financial services. It highlights differences among the 4 countries and their financial regulatory environment. This is available in many countries and allows users to store, send, and receive money using their mobile phone.
Mobile money services design and development for financial. The impact of mobile money interoperability in tanzania gsma. To be successful, mtn would need to have an open approach, allowing interoperability with its competitors. A scheme operator can either be a bank or a licensed corporate organization. This means mobile money users can transfer funds directly from their wallets to any ezwich card. Mobile money and interoperability in growth markets part. Three insights for digital payments interoperability. Pdf a blockchain based mobile money interoperability scheme. The study used both qualitative and quantitative data from the four main mobile money providers in. Branchless banking interoperability and agent exclusivity this is the third post in our series on interoperability and related issues in branchless banking and mobile money. To subscribe for this service, mobile money users must visit their bank branch to link their mobile money walletphone number to their bank account. Enabling mobile money policies in kenya fostering a. Mobile money guidelines, 20 communications for all.
In december 2014, tigo connected with zantel, and in february 2016, vodacom announced connecting with. I wrote part of this piece a few days after the launch because interoperability brought up some interesting questions for me. Interoperability is the ability for customers to undertake money transfers between two accounts at different mobile money companies or to transfer money between mobile money accounts and bank accounts. The impact of mobile money interoperability in tanzania.
Interoperability the ability for mobile money operators to interconnect to each other and to the banking system is expected to offer benefits to consumers and. The mobile money subsector is set to experience high growth in the years ahead on account of favourable regulatory environment and profinancial inclusion policies. The advantages and disadvantages of mobile money on the. Review of interoperability and regulations of mobile money pierre. When money is sent to a user outside of the mobile money scheme, a voucher code is created and sent to the recipient via sms. Nigeria, kenya, uganda, and south africa also registered significant growth in mobile money transactions diniz, albuquerque and cerney, 2011. Improvements in mobile money channels worldwide have created product options among financial institutions and merchants alike. The bank of ghana in 2016 reported that mobile money volume of transactions registered a growth rate of 737. Interoperability of mobile money services the mobile money channel. This paper a presentscrosscountry comparison of mobile money ownership and its determinants together with the factors affecting mobile money adoption. Each part contains a number of documents or tools, some specifically designed for this toolkit, others collected from the public domain. Mobile money interoperability is a major breakthrough, which is expected to deepen financial inclusion in ghana. Bou mobile money guidelines, 20 in view of the above mm risks, the guidelines provide the. An example of customerlevel interoperability is mtn mobile money in south africa, which allows vodacom customers to open mtn mobile money accounts on vodacom sim cards i.
Nov 28, 2018 phase one of the project, launched on may 10th, 2018 saw the interconnection of the mobile money platforms and the ghana national switch ghlink system, but not the ezwich payment systems. Following a brief introduction to mobile money and interoperability, we present an overview of the status of mobile money in the 46 selected countries. With branchless banking, users can take advantage of services allowing them to make basic paymentsutilities and other billsand domestic and international. The mobile money operators are the lead initiators for the mobile scheme and shall be. This means that you can now transfer mobile money across networks at a fee. Using mobile money you can withdraw and deposit cash, pay money to others, and keep money stored for later use. Customers will be able to transfer funds across networks in real time, at low cost, and in a secure environment. An active member of the alliance for financial inclusion afi network, bank of ghana bog launched the countrys first mobile money interoperability system through the ghana interbank payment and settlement systems limited. As applied to mobile money which effectively covers both the retail banking and payments sectors the ideal state of interoperability refers to interaction between any service provider financial institution, mobile network operator, thirdparty vendor through any form factor card, mobile, tablet, pc and for a range of products. Promoting payment digitisation in ghana via mobile money. Financial inclusion enabler itut technology watch report may 20 globally, more than 2. In mozambique, there is no interoperability between mobile money providers, but partial interoperability between the latter and commercial banks is emerging. Mobile money service providers mmsp are required to hold, in an escrow account in their partner sfi, the equivalent of all the mobile money that has been issued to their customers and agents. Customer experience remains critical for interoperability to scale.
Banking and payment conversion chains mobile money services are not necessarily independent from each other within the group or across groups. In africa, the dwindling revenues in the mobile telephone voice business as well as the proliferation of mobile phone handsets further enticed the operators to undertake the provision of mobile money. The link between mobile money and financial inclusion will also be discussed. The gsma reports that in 2015 almost two thirds of mobile money markets. Press release mobile money interoperability the central bank of kenya cbk welcomes the implementation of interoperability of mobile phone financial services from april 10, 2018.
Since then, significant things have happened within the space which. Mobile money and interoperability arrangements by country. This case study is a useful addition to the body of literature on what has driven this success story. It further examines different regulations that have influenced the development of financial inclusion through the use of the mobile financial services in the 4 countries. Pdf on jan 1, 2020, fickson mvula and others published a blockchain based mobile money interoperability scheme find, read and cite all.
A blockchain based mobile money interoperability scheme. In what appears to be phase one, mobile money customers in ghana will. In the countries where interoperability is already in place, interoperability only interconnects mobile money service providers, not banks, in the first phase of the interoperability. Since 2014, the share of adults with a mobile money account has grown roughly twice as fast 9 percentage points as the share of adults with an account at a formal financial institution 4 percentage points demirguckunt et al. Why does interoperability matter for financial inclusion. Mobile money in uganda international growth centre. The safe and easy electronic payments make mobile money a popular alternative to bank accounts.
The advantages and disadvantages of mobile money on the profitability of the ghanaian banking industry article by edmund amponsah opare ph. Phase one of the project, launched on may 10th, 2018 saw the interconnection of the mobile money platforms and the ghana national switch ghlink system, but not the e. Interoperability of mobile payments is one of the key priorities of ghana. Read the first post that presented the overall framework for the discussion and the second post that looked at the interconnection of mobile money platforms. Indonesia, pakistan, sri lanka, tanzania 2 will launch before end of 2015. The success of mobile money services mms led many mobile network operators mnos around the world to venture into offering similar products. In this report, we define mobile financial services by including two broad categories. The gsma mobile money interoperability program has listed different models to support mobile money interoperability. On 10th may 2018, mobile money interoperability was officially launched in ghana. A mobile money platform offering interoperability towards. Interoperability of mobile money international growth centre. Phase one of the project, launched on may 10th, 2018 saw the interconnection of the mobile money platforms and the ghana national switch ghlink system, but not the ezwich payment systems. Multilateral agreements include three or more providers and a formalized set of shared common rules. The question is no longer whether mobile money services are available, but how to ensure that the industry.
The bou has only approved mobile money operations when this is done in partnership with a supervised financial institution sfi. Achieving interoperability in mobile financial services ifc. Mobile money interoperability can be achieved through different models and the mobile money industry needs to have a choice as to which option to implement. Transfer of money from a mobile money wallet to an ezwich card wallet to ezwich w2e. The opportunity for interoperability is massive because out of the 60 countries that have two or more mobile money services, 45 countries do not have accounttoaccount interoperability. Enabling mobile money policies in kenya foreword the innovative use of mobile phone technology to drive financial inclusion in kenya has been widely acclaimed around the world.
Mobile money transfers across different networks also known as mobile money interoperability mmi have shot up by 358 percent in the first three months of this year, compared to the same period last year. With 271 services in 93 countries at the end of 2015, mobile money is now available in most developing and emerging markets gsma, 2016a. The role of mobile money on financial inclusion in the sadc region. In 2012, however, responding to customer demands, it jointly launched a savings and loan product with a local bank.
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