MobiFin Catalyses financial inclusion - Helps QCell to successfully penetrate the Gambian market!!

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1 MobiFin Catalyses financial inclusion - Helps QCell to successfully penetrate the Gambian market!! Synopsis JUL JUL 2016 Qcell a popular mobile operator approached Panamax for development and launch of a mobile money wallet in Gambia. Overcoming the low smartphone penetration in Gambia and including people within the financial ecosystem through a mobile wallet solution was a challenge. Powered by MobiFin, the mobile wallet earned 11k subscribers within the first 15 days of its operation and generated a transaction amount of $50 k.

2 Introduction Gambia is a country where more than 80% of the population does not have access to financial services and is still unbanked. The place has a relatively significant inflow of remittances amounting to 11% of the country's national income that amounts to around $ 100M per annum. In this scenario, mobile money service in the Gambian market has become a game changer for financial inclusion. 80% Unbanked 11% $ 100M per annum MobiFin has pitched to become a key player and lead the change that involves the inclusion of many unbanked people into the financial ecosystem, by extending mobile money services. Qcell a popular mobile operator proposed to launch a first of its kind mobile wallet in Gambia and approached Panamax for the same. Qodoo a mobile wallet, Powered by MobiFin, was thence launched with much fanfare, and QCell became the first MNO to launch mobile money in the Gambian market. 02

3 Challenges One of the primary challenges of having a mobile money service in remote areas is that the end users/subscribers do not have access to smartphones. According to recent statistics, the mobile phone usage in Gambia has increased. 76.5% households use mobile phones in urban areas, whereas in rural areas, 54.8% households own a mobile phone. However, all these people do not essentially use the internet over their mobile phones. Lower smartphone penetration was one of the major hurdles, in engaging the Gambian population to use mobile money wallet. Besides efficiently catering to the people using phones without the internet, the client also wanted to give optimum value to smartphone users and hence needed a mobile wallet with unified solutions that included mobile money, top-up and voucher, bill payment and bank transfer application. The mobile wallet also had to be integrated with an international remittance provider. 03

4 Our Solution A dedicated resource was deployed at the client site to understand and gather the client requirements. A team of engineers along with quality assurance professionals, product architects, and a project leader was assigned the task of developing a solution that addressed the challenges of this particular region and fulfilled the client requirements, helping them gain maximum business benefits. After a pilot run was carried out, the client gave us a go ahead. While the team worked from our operational center in India, a dedicated resource worked at the client side to get regular feedback and approvals thus ensuring a smooth and seamless development process. The project hence commenced and it took around 3 Months to take it from development to deployment. Based on regional mobile phone usage and internet accessibility in Gambia, Panamax team successfully developed and deployed a mobile wallet solution that catered to two business models to cover maximum number of people banked and unbanked and encourage them to use the Qodoo wallet. Agent led model In remote rural areas where there is limited access to mobile phones and the internet, an agent led model fits the bill. Qodoo, was powered by MobiFin so that subscribers can register with an agent and enjoy services like cash in, cash out, bill payment, avail digital vouchers, redeem their loyalty points, buy merchandise etc. Agents also help subscribers to move funds from banks and transfer money overseas, via intelligent remittance hub. Subscriber led model Subscribers who have smartphones and want to be in charge of their accounts can do self-sign-up, top-up, pay bills, transfer money, check balance, get mini statements, redeem loyalty and send money via P2P and remittance. In rural areas where smartphone penetration is limited, the entire business solution was made available on a USSD channel. The mobile wallet solution was also powered to allow merchant payment via POS device through a unique wallet ID. 04

5 Result A secure wallet with robust KYC procedure was implemented. This considerably reduced the risk of any fraudulent accounts getting created. QCell thus launched the wallet in Gambia, and managed to garner nearly 11k subscriber registrations within the first 15 days of operation. Subscribers used the unified payment application over web portal, POS, mobile apps and USSD, and carried out transactions worth $50K, within this period of initial 15 days. Qcell could hence include the unbanked into the financial ecosystem and give the power to every subscriber to carry cash, without having to carry cash. 05