Viewpoint: Regulators Walk the ‘Mobile Money’ Line
Monday, August 5, 2019
By Larry Claasen
African telecom authorities must walk a fine line when it comes to regulating the move of mobile operators into financial services. They want to encourage this shift, but they also don’t want to be in a position where operators don’t have much oversight.
This is what’s happening in Kenya, where mobile money transfer services like Safaricom’s M-Pesa don’t operate under regulations specifically meant to govern these kinds of services.
M-Pesa was a game changer when it was launched in 2007, not only for Safaricom and Kenya – it enabled the transfer of nearly half of the country’s GDP – but also for African mobile operators.
Photo courtesy of Scott Mainwaring.
Source: Moneyweb (link opens in a new window)
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- Finance, Telecommunications
