This week MMU is excited to release in-depth case studies on three mobile money deployments. All three of these services are 2012 GSMA Mobile Money “Sprinters,” the club of the fastest-growing mobile money services in the world.

The existence of these services helps to answer three lingering industry questions:

• Are there workable business models outside of the M-PESA model? The answer appears to be yes. One service transacts the majority of volume “over-the-counter” or through mobile-enabled agents rather than via a customer wallet. The second has put an early emphasis on the ecosystem by putting a large effort into signing up salary payers and merchants rather than focusing on P2P transfers. The third is investing heavily in building a merchant acquiring business and banking on it to drive the majority of transactions.
• Does mobile money have legs beyond Kenya and some of its’ immediate neighbours? The answer appears to be yes. These services exist in environments that are geographically, culturally and socio-economically distinct from the better publicized success stories in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda.   
• Can mobile operators deliver financial services in diverse and challenging operating environments? All three of these services operate in difficult markets where traditional financial service players have failed to adapt. Political turmoil, hyperinflation, security issues, and lack of internationally recognized financial institutions are some of the barriers that these operators have overcome.

Today, we’re releasing the first in the series of in-depth case studies: EcoCash from Econet Wireless in Zimbabwe. The other two case studies will be released later in the week.

EcoCash has leapt off the starting blocks, registering 31% of Zimbabwe’s adult population onto the service in only 18 months on the back of an aggressive field registration effort. What distinguishes Econet’s approach is the level of strategic commitment from the highest levels of management. Econet leadership has housed EcoCash under an entirely separate company with its own governance and funding. What’s the justification for this level of commitment? Econet see a far greater opportunity in mobile money than P2P remittance. They are counting on a broad suite of mobile financial services to replace revenue from a core telecom business that will eventually become saturated and less profitable. Find out more about Econet’s big ambitions by reading the case study.

On Wednesday, we will journey to the horn of Africa. Telesom Somaliland’s ZAAD service has managed to achieve a degree of customer usage probably unmatched in the industry. The average active ZAAD user transacts 30 times per month, or roughly daily. ZAAD has achieved this by creating an ecosystem of salary payers to fund eWallets and merchants to accept electronic payments. Perhaps one of the most unique features about the service is its pricing structure: There are no customer transaction fees. Check back on Wednesday to hear what motivated ZAAD to make this choice.

On Friday, we’ll look towards South Asia. Easypaisa, the mobile money service launched in Pakistan in 2009 as a partnership between Telenor and Tameer Bank, serves more than 5 million customers a month through 25,000 points of service. By the end of 2012, it had processed more than 100 million transactions with a throughput of more than US$ 1.4 billion. Easypaisa was launched through an innovative new model for mobile money, the over-the-counter model, which gave customer access to financial services without cumbersome registration processes.

For those attending MMU’s Global Event in Nairobi next week, we will hear from senior leadership from all three of these services on what has made them so successful and their plans for the future.  It’s shaping up to be a fantastic event.