Mobile for Development

Your Excellencies, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, I am very pleased to have you joining us at Mobile 360 – Africa. As Alex noted just a few moments ago, mobile has had, and will continue to have, a profound and transformative impact on the world.

Innovation and investment by mobile network operators have contributed considerably to the social and economic growth of Sub-Saharan Africa. The mobile ecosystem, led by operators, will continue to address the barriers that prevent the underserved from gaining access to the mobile internet, especially women, low income, rural and youth communities.

I am very proud to say that the GSMA Mobile for Development organisation has played a crucial role in bringing together operators, donors and ecosystem players to deliver lifeenhancing mobile services for underserved populations around the world. In the past three years alone, we have reached more than 25 million people.

This is great progress for sure, but there is much more to be done. Going forward, the Mobile for Development programme will increasingly focus its efforts on three key enablers: Connectivity, Mobile Money and Identity for the Unregistered.

Connectivity

The mobile industry has had great success in connecting the world. Globally, mobile broadband networks cover 76 per cent of the world’s population today. That’s an impressive figure. But it also means that nearly one quarter of the world’s population is still not covered by mobile broadband and in some regions, this number is considerably higher.

There is a significant opportunity to extend the reach of the mobile internet, particularly in developing markets, in areas where fixed-line infrastructure is very limited. In developing markets only 30 per cent of people have mobile internet access, while in developed markets the corresponding number is 61 per cent.

The GSMA is working across the industry to address the barriers that prevent underserved population groups from gaining access to the mobile internet. We see four critical areas that need to be addressed to enable ‘offline’ populations to access mobile internet services:

• Extending network coverage into remote, off-grid locations, which could require various forms of public-private collaboration, such as government support for voluntary network sharing, release of low-frequency spectrum or shared funding models;

• Removing the affordability barrier by working to lower cost of mobile ownership and ensuring that mobile internet devices and data plans are not subject to restrictive government taxes and fees;

• Tackling the digital skills gap and lack of internet awareness, which are main consumer barriers to mobile internet adoption, even where coverage and affordability issues are addressed; and

• Increasing availability of locally relevant mobile internet content, ensuring that local mobile internet content is available on as many devices as possible in correct languages, and is relevant to needs and interests of local users. E-government services are great examples here.

Mobile Money

Mobile money services are a clear success story for the industry, bringing financial services to millions of citizens, driving economic growth and promoting financial inclusion. There are now 264 live mobile money services in 93 markets around the world, and 59 markets have two or more mobile money services. Africa is the birthplace of mobile money, and 52 per cent of the world’s services are still here in Sub-Saharan Africa, with 137 live services in 38 countries across the region.

Importantly, mobile money services are rapidly gaining scale. Worldwide, at the end of 2014, there were nearly 300 million registered mobile money accounts, 103 million of which are active.

• 20 services now have more than 1 million active accounts

• Five services have more than 5 million active mobile money accounts

• 16 markets have more mobile money accounts than bank accounts, indicating that mobile money remains a key enabler for financial inclusion.

However, in most markets mobile money usage continues to be dominated by two types of transactions: person-to-person transfers and airtime top-ups. Deeper impact on financial inclusion can only be achieved if we develop new use cases enabled by mobile accounts.

The opportunity exists to build a successful mobile financial ecosystem and the GSMA is clearly focusing on that. Customers will get access to a greater range of products and increased convenience, security and affordability, while mobile money offers operators an attractive proposition to augment their core GSM business.

While the opportunity for developing the mobile money ecosystem is great and the benefits are clear, we must address four key issues:

• Overcome regulatory hurdles;

• Drive industry collaboration on interoperability;

• Crack the business model for new ecosystem services; and

• Strengthen foundations that support the ecosystem.

Finally, I am very pleased to announce that the GSMA has received an additional $9.4 million in funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, The MasterCard Foundation and Omidyar Network to launch the third phase of the Mobile Money Programme, for a three year period to 2018. This funding will allow the programme to accelerate development of the mobile money ecosystem for the underserved and extend the positive results we’ve already seen.

Identity for the Unregistered

Official identity is a prerequisite for economic and social development. The ability to prove that you are who you say you are and have this information authenticated when interacting with the government or private companies is critical to accessing basic services such as healthcare, education, employment, financial services and voting.

A lack of formal identity leads to social, economic and political exclusion; it is critical for development and key to creating a flourishing digital economy. A recent study by the World Bank and Accenture estimates that 1.8 billion adults in developing markets lack official identification. And here in Sub-Saharan Africa, UNICEF estimates that only 44 per cent of children are registered at birth.

The mobile industry has an important opportunity to leverage its scale to address this gap and work with partners to provide identity for the unregistered. We are already seeing some success stories across the region. In Uganda, UNICEF has worked with Uganda Telecom, MTN and the government to increase birth registration from 30 per cent to more than 60 per cent between 2011 and 2014 using a mobile-based platform, Mobile-VRS. In Tanzania, Tigo is working with partners to register 1 million children through an SMS-based application.

These are just two examples. The GSMA is working with its members to leverage mobile as a source for identification, to build the digital identity ecosystem for those without identification and importantly, to drive these identity solutions for the unregistered to scale. In addition to addressing identity for the unregistered in developing markets, identity and personal data are a major focus for the GSMA on a global basis. We are driving the adoption of GSMA Mobile Connect, a solution that enables customers to create and manage a universal identity providing secure authentication and access to a range of mobile and digital services. Nearly 20 mobile operators have so far launched Mobile Connect, with plans for additional launches and trials to follow this year.

Building on Key Enablers

Supporting our major Mobile for Development programmes, the GSMA has launched an Ecosystem Accelerator, which is designed to improve partnerships between operators and startups in order to reach scale in high-impact services in each of these three areas.

While connectivity, mobile money and identity represent our main focus areas in Mobile for Development going forward, vital services such as healthcare, water, sanitation and electricity remain inaccessible to those living near the poverty line. For this reason, the GSMA continues its efforts in mHealth and mAgri as well as providing mobile-enabled energy, water and sanitation services for the underserved. Quality education for all is also a key element of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals launched just a few weeks ago.

We also continue to support initiatives such as the Connected Women programme, which was originally launched in 2010 and is centred around closing the gender gap in mobile.

Connected Women is now focused on driving digital and financial inclusion, two areas where we see women being significantly left behind. For instance, women in Africa are 13 per cent less likely to own a mobile phone than a man, resulting in 27 million fewer women than men with mobiles. Women are also 36 per cent less likely to have used mobile money in the past 12 months in low- and middle-income countries

Africa has been a target market for Connected Women since the launch of the programme and we have seen some great successes with African operators and NGOs working in partnership, with the launch of services ranging from maternal and child health mobile information, to mobile learning for business training, to savings and micro-insurance products for pregnant women.

Thank you very much for your time this morning. I am sure you will have the opportunity to explore more of these programmes and initiatives over the next two days and I look forward to reporting on our success in these areas over the months and years to come.

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