The following is a guest post we’re pleased to share by William Hoffman and Sjoerd Nikkelen from the World Economic Forum.
Today we launched the Mobile Financial Services Development Report 2011. Providing an analysis of more than 100 variables across 20 countries in Africa, Latin America and Asia, the aim of this report is to build consensus on the drivers for realizing scale in mobile financial services and on how they should be measured. It proposes a taxonomy and analytic tool for further analysis.
Click here for an executive summary of the report.
We take a broad scope of the ecosystem and focus on those elements that lead to long term development. For each country, a profile is included that measures its performance across seven pillars:
- Regulatory proportionality
- Consumer protection
- Market competitiveness
- Market catalysts
- End-user empowerment and access
- Distribution and agent network
- Adoption and availability
The report provides empirical support for many of the issues widely discussed on this blog such as the relative few number of countries that have achieved scale in mobile financial services, the importance of dense and well incentivized distribution networks, and factors that drive adoption other than those influenced by regulators and the private sector.
One of the highlights relevant to this community is the need for better data collection and dissemination. The report shows that those countries with a data-rich and fact-based environment (that allows them to learn and adjust with greater agility) score better on their overall ‘readiness’ to successfully scale mobile financial services. The need for better data concerns all aspects of mobile financial services.
- On the institutional side, more insight is needed on the effectiveness and impact of regulations that are on the books, versus the way they are enforced and implemented on a day-to-day basis.
- Private sector participants, still looking to define successful business models and ways to achieve profitable scale, will need to capture and share more insights on consumer adoption and usage.
- Finally, a better understanding of the needs and customs of poor and illiterate users is needed to better align the design of services.
The creation of this report involved extensive outreach and dialogue with members of the private sector, academic community, governments, multilateral institutions, and donor organizations. We hope it will be used as a basis for further discussion and want to thank all community members for their contributions and continuous support.
The report was prepared in collaboration with the Boston Consulting Group and can be downloaded at: http://www.weforum.org/mfs. The full data set can be downloaded for own analysis at here.