vritti
Mobilution
to identify high activity areas such as rural
business centers, trading zones near highways,
border towns, etc, which require more agents.
They can also identify remote and less populated
areas with decent mobile penetration but low
mobile money activity and place agents at
these unserved points.
Agents in high activity rural areas usually
obtain good business but are troubled by their
inability to quickly replenish float (e-money)
like in urban areas. On other hand, in remote
and sparsely populated areas, agents are
sometimes unable to sustain the business,
owing to the low number of transactions or
unavailability of cash due to more cash-outs
than cash-ins. Hence, mobile money providers
have to take special measures to ensure
viability of agents business in rural areas. For
example, EcoCash in Zimbabwe has set a
much lower float and cash limit to start an
agency business for rural agents, compared to
urban agents (See exhibit 1) [3].
Exhibit 1- EcoCash Zimbabwe
requirements to start agency business
Minimum amount
required to
purchase
float $1000 Minimum cash
required to assist
customers during
cash-out
Harare Central
Business District $1000 $1000
Suburbs $1000 $1000
Other Central
Business District $500 $500
Rural areas $200 $200
Area
January 2020
17
To make the mobile money agency business
viable in rural areas, service providers can
opt for ‘location-based commission structure’,
offering higher commissions to rural agents
in remote and sparsely populated area with a
low number of transactions.
To overcome float challenges, mobile money
providers are offering float loans to their agent.
The amount of float loans depends on the
credit score of the agent, which is based on
their transaction history and age on network.
Mobile money providers can also provide
loans to potential rural agents who are unable to
start the agency business, due to high float or
cash requirement.
Mobile money providers are also experimenting
with predictive analytics to improve float and
liquidity management. Based on the agent’s
transaction data, the volume of customers at
a location, float balance, cash balance (can be
recorded by agent on regular basis and fed
into a predictive analytics system), mobile
money provider can predict an agent’s float
and cash requirement on a daily, weekly and
monthly basis.
[2]
[3]
IT Web Africa
EcoCash