Mobile money opens smooth traffic for business transactions

“Even though the commissions for agents are better than those on M-Pesa, you will not find people walking in asking to ‘zap.’

The company has not provided us with the right branding materials or supported the product enough by advertising to make it attractive to consumers,” said an agent who spoke on condition of anonymity due to his relationship with the firm.

At just Sh10 per transaction, Zap is a cheaper solution in the market at this time, and agents say that alone should drive more consumers to use it.

Zain says that Sh2.3 million is transferred on its service daily, but its agents say that most customers shy away from the service because awareness levels are low. “Just try finding a Zap outlet outside the CBD – they are there, but they are not visible enough,” an agent said.

Is the phone rising to become the mobile bank? Not quite, says new research from CGAP.

“Mobile phones are ingenious devices, but one thing they cannot do by themselves is convert cash into electronic value or dispense cash. They can be used only to transfer or transform value electronically,” said the group in a report titled ‘Banking on Mobiles: Why, How, for Whom?’

CGAP says a bank that wants to cover a new geography with a mobile banking strategy will need a cash-in, cash-out network.

“But it can be ‘clicks and mortar lite,’ because the mobile banking platform itself can help in deploying that network cost-effectively by letting, for instance, an agents’ mobile phone act as a POS for handling agent transactions,” said Ignacio Mas and Kumar Kabir, authors of the CGAP Focus Note 48.