Mobile Money for Business Development in the East African Community

Transcription

1 Mobile Money for Business Development in the East African Community Cécile Barayre Programme Manager, E-commerce and Law Reform Programme 24 October 2013

2 Contents Background Role of postal offices Case of Burundi Recommendations

3 EAC SNAPSHOT 138M+ population 67M+ mobile phone subscribers 21 mobile network operators 15 of these have mobile money (MM) offerings 15% of all MM deployments in Africa With 30M+ mobile money (MM) subscribers

4 EAC MOBILE MONEY SNAPSHOT

5 ROLE OF POSTAL OFFICES Kenya (Airtel) and Burundi (Ecokash) Advantages: trust and postal network (critical mass of customers and agents) super agent: a cash-in/cash-out network Issues: computerization, competition Offer services to several mobile money operators: improve interoperability for customers and MNOs

6 BURUNDI: ECOKASH & RNP First MM in the country (2009)/29,000 MM subscriptions Ecokash agents/postal offices Almost no access to MM services (lack of infrastructure and banks in rural areas) 132 post offices: RNP as a super agent "Suivant le rythme du changement, la RNP devra analyser les opportunités offertes par les TIC en vue de l'exploitation prochaine des produits électroniques tels e- banking, e-commerce, e- business, e-administration et autres produits apparentés». Victoire Ndikumana, Ministre en charge des postes (9 octobre 2013)

7 RECOMMENDATIONS Need for an effective and robust legal and regulatory framework Need for regulatory teamwork between regulatory and market sectors Need to address concerns related to : - consumer protection, - registration and transaction limits, - regulatory collaboration and - interoperability

8 STATUS E-COMMERCE LEGISLATION econtracting Data privacy Consumer protection Copyright Domain name Internet & mobile payment systems Cybercrime & cybersecurity Content control Burundi Pending Pending Pending 2005 Act Not reported Kenya 2009 Act X 2010 Regulation s & proposed Bill 2009 Act Not reported X 2009 Act & Bill Pending X 2009 Act 2010 Regulations Rwanda 2010 Act X 2010 Act 2009 Act Pending X 2010 Law Tanzania Draft bill Partial under 2010 Law Uganda 2011 Act Draft Law 2010 Law X 1999 Act X X Draft bill Partial under 2010 Law 2011 Act 2006 Act Pending X 2011 Act 2011 Act Source: UNCTAD, 2013

9 CONSUMER SUPPORT AND PROTECTION Define quality of service metrics that are regularly tracked and disseminated MM data needs consideration within general framework of privacy and data retention laws within the EAC Consumer support structures and systems Consumer training

10 REGISTRATION AND TRX LIMITS Incremental registration and KYC Harmonization of ID documents SIM + small business registration REGULATOR TEAMWORK Financial + communications regulator Regional harmonization and integration

11 INTEROPERABILITY Challenging for small enterprises to support multiple MM platforms for payment Interconnection fee: voice vs. MM MM ecosystem integration into the national payments system National MM ecosystem integration into the EAC Post as a switch among several MMOs

12 THANK YOU! For more information on UNCTAD Studies on Mobile Money and Cyberlaw Harmonization in the EAC:

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