The unification and simplification of mobile payment systems is no longer just about< > telecom operators, but also banks and merchants.
Saïd Aït-Hatrit
The GSMA, the association of mobile operators, repeats it in its reports: in Africa, where is <> find almost half of the world's active mobile money accounts, the sector largely driven by the possibility of making transactions between subscribers of different operators. La
abolition of commissions and simplification of payment services should help to improve
financial inclusion on the continent, while the rate of banking remains low, around 18.5% in
WAEMU. "Interoperability also reduces the use of cash, and therefore the risk of loss, theft, or
corruption related to the transport and storage of money. It also helps to formalize trade,"
says Jean-Michel Huet of BearingPoint.
Started more than five years ago, interoperability is progressing slowly but surely. In Tanzania, the country
African pioneer of the issue since 2014, the three main operators, Vodacom, Airtel and Tigo,
reported that, two years later, 6% to 8% of person crossed between them. Madagascar followed Tanzania in 2016, followed by Uganda (2017), Ghana
(2018) and Kenya (2018). In the latter country, Safaricom (M-Pesa), dominant with nearly 80% share
market, had to share its user and partner base under pressure from its challengers.
However, there are two obstacles to the expansion of interoperability: the possession of several SIM cards – in
average of two to three per user in most sub-Saharan countries – but also the reluctance of
proof the telecom groups to communicate on the subject. Indeed, they prefer to focus their campaigns on
advertising on their exclusive services.
Operators, for whom mobile money is no longer really an argument for customer loyalty, must
now go beyond the simple P2P payment stage by accelerating the interoperability of their system with
that of banks, remittance agencies and merchants. Through bilateral agreements, the
Most mobile networks allow money transfers to or from bank
classics. But regulators want more simplicity. That's why Tanzania Central Bank set up a centralised platform, instead of the systems resulting from bilateral agreements, which should
allow full interoperability next June. In Tunisia, it is also in this direction that the
Ministry of Finance, the Central Bank and the company Monétique-Tunisie have been working since 2018. Plus
Surprisingly, Morocco, where Inwi and Orange only rolled out their mobile banking offerings in 2019 and where the
banking is one of the strongest on the continent (78% in June 2019), also deploys its project, M-wallet.
Bank Al-Maghrib (the central bank) and the National Telecommunications Regulatory Agency
(ANRT) have created with the Moroccan HPS a single platform to which all currency issuers
electronics should soon connect. This service, which was originally scheduled to start in 2019, is expected to be
operational this year.
Even more ambitious, through Mowali, their joint venture created in November 2018, the two leaders
Orange and MTN want to connect financial service providers across Africa to
within a single network. Cross would be more dependent on bilateral agreements. The solution could have been suitable for the BCEAO, which creates
currently, via the Groupement interbancaire monétique (GIM), a single interoperability platform
intra-WAEMU. But its offer, submitted in December 2019, was not preselected. "Mowali therefore focuses , in the short term, on international transfers [currency conversion] from operator to operator",
indicates Orange.