Last week, more than 200 industry leaders and partners convened in Cape Town at the Mobile Money Global Event, where sessions highlighted the opportunities for collaboration in developing the mobile money ecosystem. The day’s agenda featured a variety of topics, including:

• Ramping up interoperability: New developments in Rwanda and Madagascar
• Digitising government payments
• Economic impact of mobile money in the digital economy
• To OTC or not to OTC? The value and sustainability of a cash-to-cash model
• Spotlight on Rural Supply: Critical factors to create successful mobile money agents
• The importance of distribution in mobile insurance: lessons learnt

The final agenda is available online, in addition to the presentation slides from the day.

We also launched two publications last week, a case study which highlights the success of the collaborative mobile money school registration fee payment initiative in Côte d’Ivoire, and a research publication, on the supply of mobile money in two predominantly rural markets: Mali and Chad.

Key Takeaways from the Mobile Money Global Event

1. There’s a common vision from mobile money operators that collaboration and interoperability is beneficial for the industry, by expanding the addressable market, as well as allowing greater financial inclusion and social development.

2. Key factors for successfully implementing interoperability include: provider and market readiness; a neutral facilitator or broker to facilitate the discussions; the creation of operational rules to bring trust and mitigate risks; a sustainable commercial model for all parties and a supportive and enabling regulation.

—From “Ramping up interoperability: New developments in Rwanda and Madagascar”

3. The school registration fee payment initiative from Côte d’Ivoire illustrates that whole streams of government payments can be rapidly digitised, bringing benefits such as security, efficiency and transparency to society.

4. Digitising government payments is only possible with strong commitment and effective collaboration between government and mobile money providers to deliver unified solutions. For school fee payment initiative in Cote d’Ivoire, this collaboration resulted in an aligned customer experience, settlement process and a joint marketing campaign.

—From “Digitising government payments”

5. Evidence supported by data shows that mobile money does have a positive impact on economic development and growth, and decreases the informal economy by reducing cash outside the formal financial system.

6. Regulators should be agents of development by ensuring markets function properly through effective oversight and supervision.

—From “The economic impact of mobile money in the digital economy”

7. From both a commercial and operational perspective, OTC is a quick way to launch mobile money in many markets. However growth slows down after few years, and operators look at increasing the number of customers using mobile wallets, as it becomes difficult to roll out products.

8. Agents play a vital role in the operations of OTC and they will continue to play an important role as mobile money providers transform their service model from OTC-based to mobile wallet-based.

—From “To OTC or not to OTC? The value and sustainability of a cash to cash model”

9. In both Mali and Chad, there are successful mobile money agents operating deep in the frontier without access to either formal financial services or core physical infrastructure. Comparing these two markets allows for a better understanding of the universal challenges and opportunities of building a rural distribution network and offers some key recommendations for mobile money providers.

10. Mobile operators are particularly well positioned to create greater visibility in their market through an asset they already have: data. More specifically, the combination of CDR data, base station locations, and mobile money transactional data are a powerful triumvirate. With these data sets, operators can build an efficient go-to-market tool to guide their rural expansion.

—From “Spotlight on Rural Supply: Critical factors to create successful mobile money agents”

11. Mobile insurance continues to gain traction, with eight services having issued over 1 million policies (up from five last year). It is clear that there are multiple ways to scale mobile insurance, and so far, success has been shared. However there is a shift towards non-life products and the industry needs to continue to innovate and develop insurance products that suit people’s needs.

—From “The importance of distribution in mobile insurance: lessons learnt”

Save the Date: 2016 Mobile Money Global Event

The next Mobile Money Global Event will be held July 2016 in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and we’ll be sharing updates about the event early next year. Be sure to subscribe to our newsletters to receive the latest information.

Written with contributions from the GSMA Mobile Money team.