The mobile money sector now has an international certification program, an initiative of the GSMA, the worldwide association of mobile operators, which wants to be “a seal of excellence” to hoist the providers of Mobile money to the best practices at the global level.
With 690 million active accounts and $ 1 billion in daily transactions worldwide, Mobile Money is now a booming corporate phenomenon in emerging markets, particularly in Africa. The success of this service, however, is based on the trust of users and the quality of the services offered. And it is to ensure the reliability of this system, which closely matches the banking sector with financial stakes increasingly important, that the international certification has been implemented.
Called “GSMA Mobile Money Certification”, the program was presented this April 12 in Abidjan at the international meeting “360 Mobile – West Africa”. The goal is to adopt best practices in the industry that ensure user deposits, provide quality, reliable and secure services, and combat money laundering and terrorist financing, explained Nathan Naidoo , Policy Officer and Advocacy on Mobile Money at GSMA.
Certification helps to “build trust and empower consumers to make more informed choices about their financial services, encourage the adoption of mobile money, advance financial inclusion (…) and encourage integration of the financial ecosystem, “he added.
On this last point, the other advantage of the program is to promote and facilitate interactions with the banking system. An orientation adopted by Orange, which wants to position itself at first as a “distributor of banking services” in Africa, its banking project is still “at the stage of study,” said Patrick Roussel, director of mobile financial services for Africa and the Middle East at Orange.
5 suppliers already certified
The certification is open to all mobile money providers, mobile operators, bank or any other type of mobile money provider. And five operators have obtained their certification: Orange Ivory Coast, Safaricom (Kenya), Telenor Microfinance Bank Ltd. (Easypaisa Pakistan), Tigo Tanzania (Millicom Group) and Vodacom Tanzania. The latter, present in four markets represent 98 million Mobile money accounts.
The program, entrusted to an independent auditor, is based on eight principles that include a total of nearly 300 indicators to validate and that propel certified entities to “the vanguard of the sector” according to Nathan Naidoo.
“It’s a benchmarking tool that allows us to evaluate what we do. And we believe it is important for customers to know that their money is safe and that we offer world-class customer service, “said Angelina Peshua, director of Mobile Financial Services at Milicom Tigo in Tanzania.
interoperability
But the challenge is to bring all the operators of Mobile money to engage in the process of certification. A perspective that will standardize practices and be an asset to facilitate interoperability between operators at the state level.
The certification is awarded for a period of three years. For this period, the issuers of Mobile Money are required to comply with all of their commitments with respect to the evaluation criteria, even if the precious ticket is withdrawn.
