Issues around access and sundry matters have conspired to threaten the roll out of mobile money services, dampening excitements, after initial hype touted mobile money as the next big thing, Nigeria CommunicationsWeek can now reveal.
In effect, operators licensed by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) are still struggling with mass access channels to reach all market segments.
Though, the licensees are actively rolling out services, building agent networks, deploying services to gain market share, the absence of telecom regulatory framework is a major challenge for the effective take off of the industry estimated at some N150 billion.
Other issues such as inadequate distribution or agency networks, lack of proper awareness and poor mass education have also served to hobble the burgeoning industry.
Peter Ilabuya, an internet marketing expert who has also done a lot of work on mobile money industry said there is no commerce without the community the products and services are meant for.
Nigeria CommunicationsWeek gathered that mobile money service is the transfer of monetary value via the mobile phone. The system fundamentally rides on mobile networks.
But despite the ubiquity of the mobile phone, critical mass access channels are still in short supply.
And for mobile payment industry to change the way consumers interact with financial services and make payments, regulatory authorities must compel mobile network operators to up mass access channels like subscriber identification module toolkit and Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) for mobile money providers.
The SIM application toolkit allows for the service provider or bank to house the consumer’s mobile banking menu within the SIM card.
The SIM application toolkit is a standard of the GSM system which enables the SIM to initiate actions which can be used for various value added services.
Emmanuel Okoegwale, principal associate, MobileMoney Africa, said that without opening up of the access channels by network operators, it will be an uphill task to reach the masses and provide an easy and convenient means to access the service.
According to him, if services are unable to reach the targeted people, how will they use the services?
Nodding in agreement, Ilubuya said mobile money service must be like the mobile phone where with just a click of the phone button, calls can be made to anybody with a handset connected to any network around the world.
Both Ilubuya and Okoegwale, agreed the industry needs to address the challenges if their quest to sign up millions of unbanked population on the mobile payment platform would be successful.
Nigeria CommunicationsWeek gathered since December last year when mobile money service effectively took off in Nigeria, there has not been any appreciable uptake recorded.
Okoegwale blamed the slow uptake on the providers’ mistakes of deploying services that are suitable for mid range and high end devices users while the main target of the scheme- the bottom of the pyramid and their peculiarities are ignored.
Elsewhere, server-side technologies built on a server; away from the consumer’s SIM or Mobile handset poses its own problem.
Examples of server-side technologies are SMS, IVR, USSD2 and WAP while client-side technologies are those applications, solutions and service offerings built or embedded on a consumer SIM or mobile handset. Examples of client-side applications are J2ME (JAVA).
On the other side, because mobile network operators power the infrastructure that are the primary back bone to network access for mobile money providers, they are either not ready technologically or in some cases do not have the commercial justification for such investment to develop infrastructure that may not deliver value to them since they are not directly licensed to provide mobile money services in Nigeria.
Okoegwale said that going forward; providers need to understand their target market and which devices they use as a way of mitigating the access issue.
They also need to articulate the best user experience and value proposition sufficient in the target market.
Access, Others Hobble Mobile Money Revolution
