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The Digital Financial Services Guide
December 2018
13
Future Opportunities
According to research by the Pew Research
Centre conducted in Kenya, Tanzania, Senegal,
Nigeria, Ghana and South Africa, sub-Saharan
Africa's smartphone penetration stands at 33
per cent, which is significantly higher than the
15 per cent recorded in 2014. In fact, market
analysts predict that this will double by 2025.
With increasing penetration of smartphones
in Africa and the rapid development of new
services, a plethora of opportunities arise.
Users with smartphones are much more likely to
use their phones for multiple activities, compared
to users with feature phones. An example to
Enhanced user experience
By developing an application, one can ensure
an improved user experience. However, this
may entail the customer signing in, creating
an account or subscribing to a service or for
daily transactions. The registration process
can be digitized via the mobile application.
The mobile app can digitize the complete
registration process, where customer can
open the app, enter mobile number and verify it
using OTP (One Time Password), enter
personal details for KYC, click photo of
Identity documents and submit them digitally
and take a Selfi and submit it as the photo
proof. Thus the entire registration or KYC
process can be automated.
Going a step further, mobile money applications
can also ensure delivery of a “connected”
experience. The Orange Money application
substantiate this is Ghana where 79 per cent
of smartphone users sent text messages in
the last 12 months, compared to 33 per cent
sent by feature phone users.
Smartphones have the potential to further
revolutionize the mobile money space in
Africa. One of the fundamental advantages of
smartphones is that mobile money systems
can have their mobile application which will
enhance the user experience by catering to all
limitations of USSD, SMS and IVR mentioned
above. For instance:
deployed in Côte d’Ivoire is an appropriate
example. Orange discovered that after executing
a person-to-person money transfer, the sender
and receiver connected with each other
either through a call or SMS to confirm
payment. Hence, Orange made it possible for
customers to call or text without leaving the
Orange Money application. Going forward,
Orange plans to include a chat service that
displays an individual’s transaction history.
Expand reach
Compared to conventional channels such as
USSD, mobile-based applications enable
customers belonging to other networks to
register as well. For example, in Zimbabwe,
Netone and Telecel customers can register
for Econet Wireless’ EcoCash mobile money
service, via the EcoCash app.