This month’s Mobile Monday Nigeria focused on the future of mobile payment, as a result, most of the guys in the building work or have worked with mobile money and mobile payment systems. The presence of a number of experts in this field added an argumentative yet informative flavor to the meeting with moments of discussions and contributions that brought out the real truths about mobile payment technologies.
I missed the first half of the opening presentation by Tim Akinbo who talked about Stanbic mobile money system, but I joined in as he was being engaged with questions from OoNwoye, even Emmanuel, the program coordinator for the night, found it difficult to stop.
Next up was Femi Agboade to talk about Eartholeum – a mobile money company. He emphasized the need for mobile money in helping to bank the unbanked and stated that the market is far from ready in Nigeria. With CBN giving little or no help, he also listed some opportunities and challenges the company is facing, including the fact that telecommunication companies, being their competitors in the mobile money market, are not giving them enough breathing space. This triggered questions and contributions from OoNwoye and Emeka Okoye part of which was to differentiate between mobile money and mobile payment.
“Mobile money is for the poor and the un-banked, and it should address their needs. Mobile money should not be in Lagos where nearly everyone is banked. The only mobile money in my village is a man sitting with 6 ATM cards and 8 banks.” said Emeka.
After the discussion on mobile money and mobile payment, Idemudia from Rancard delivered the last presentation for the day. His presentation was brief because time was far spent. He explained Rancard’s role in the mobile payment market stating that they are not agents, rather, they act as API intermediary between developers/content provider and Telcos.
The night was rounded up by the program coordinator, Emmanuel, who mentioned that the next Mobile Monday meeting will hold on 17th of December because of the festive holidays. The topic for the next Mobile Monday meeting will be focused on Nigeria ICT policy.
