Once a sunrise industry, telecom across the globe has now matured, gone through several rounds of consolidation, technology-obsolete (with competition from VoIP, LTE) and in many cases plateaued to declining. Its key offering – providing easy and affordable ‘communications’ to the most unconnected and unserved parts of the world has been a boon in the age of globalization. People and institutions connected and lived, loved and played more.
Having revolutionized communication, the industry is at the cusp of one more revolution; the revolution of ‘financial inclusion’.
With access to communication and its corollary ‘data’, even the geographically and socio-economically remotest have soaring aspirations of livelihoods and lifestyles, most requiring commerce and exchange of monies. Traditional banks have been lagging behind at reaching out and serving these under/un-served segments owing to several legacy reasons of capital investments, RoI considerations, security among others.
Individual telcos with access to millions of customers (consumers, SMEs, large corporations) are uniquely placed to bring about tectonic shifts in ‘financial inclusion’. Telcos are enabling commercial transactions unshackling the constraints of geography, time, the size of transaction.
Banking regulations & policies tuned to modern day
Having realised the lacuna of the existing private and public financial systems, governments across countries have taken progressive stance to bring about regulations to allow multiple players with ‘licences’ to operate ‘no-frills’ to ‘full-service’ bank-led mobile money solutions.
Since 2010, more than 55 countries have made commitments to financial inclusion, and more than 30 have either launched or are developing a national strategy. (source: worldbank.org)
Enter Fintechs
Mobile Money/ Financial Technology (Fintech) companies are at the centre and the core enablers of such shifts, be it for the telcos who want to become more of a bank or the traditional banks themselves.
Managed payment services products enable seamless onboarding of the software platform to help manage real time payment processes across multiple access channels. With mobile client interfaces across multiple channels, solutions maximise customer reach and allows users to send and receive money, pay bills and buy goods and services, seamlessly at low cost and risk.
- Digital IDs make it easier than ever before to open an account ,and
- Greater availability of customer data allows providers to design digital financial products that better fit the needs of unbanked individuals
By the end of 2016 there were more than half a billion registered mobile money accounts available across live services in 92 countries. (Annual GSMA report, 2016)
The OBOPAY advantage:
Provide your customers unique mobile-enabled money transaction abilities that add value to your offerings. OBOPAY’s platform is a high performance solution that is also legally compliant. Widen your customer base with an offering of mobile money services, bringing a huge section of unbanked and underbanked consumers into your market.
- Mobile Wallet
- Airtime Recharge
- Merchant Payments
- Ability to Send/Receive Money
- Bill Payment
- Agent Assistance
- Tax Payment
- Invite Friends
- Linked Bank Account
- Bulk Disbursements & Collections
- Card Management
- Collective Savings Group
Today, mobile money reaches approximately 66 percent of low and middle-income markets. Developing countries are the major adopters to the popularity and customer base of mobile money.
Technology enablers like OBOPAY are one more important cog-in-the-wheel. Present in four out of top five mobile money markets across the globe and having powered over 11% of global mobile money transactions with zero fraud cases, OBOPAY has carved an immensely successful growth story for itself in the past few years. A recent tie-up with Mexico’s GoRed is in sync with OBOPAY’s global expansion plans and also a testimony to its strength in working in a very important geography such as Latin America.
The Future:
Telcos are jostling for space to become the new-age banks while traditional brick and mortar banks have now opened up and rapidly adopting technology and seeking new partnerships (in many cases frenemies with telcos) to play significant roles in the financial inclusion revolution.
Irrespective of who serves the individual consumers, SMEs, large corporation, it spells boon for those being served. For long such segments that have been deprived of the benefits of globalization and wealth distribution will witness a rapid access, thanks to global push from institutions such as World Bank, Country policy and regulations, businesses and the Fintechs joining hands.
Long live the telecom revolution!
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