10 Ways to Accelerate Mobile Money

Mobile money can transform the lives of 1.8 billion people who have access to a mobile phone but not a bank. It can connect the last mile to basic financial services. Yet despite the over 100 mobile money deployments around the world, only a handful have reached economies of scale.

We have learned from these deployments that the private sector cannot do it alone. Neither can governments, nor the donor community. Mobile money deployments require the coordinated action of all ecosystem participants to achieve scale. The most successful mobile money markets sound like a polished symphony orchestra, where the various industry and government participants show up at the same time with the same sheet of music and play in harmony. But that is not today’s reality. Instead, participants appear at different times and places with their own music and tempo.

These ten accelerators represent a call for coordinated action. They encapsulate a set of lessons that both the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and Citi have learned by engaging governments, banks, companies, mobile network operators, and practitioners. These accelerators also draw on research conducted by CGAP, GSMA, and the Gates Foundation. We hope that they accelerate the conversation toward a set of best practices.¹

Accelerator 1: Ensure Mobile Money Transfers Are Safe and Transparent

Accelerator 2: Establish an Inter-agency Government Process to Coordinate Mobile Money Decisions

Accelerator 3: Leverage Mobile Money for Government and Donor Payments and Collections

Accelerator 4: Get Food and Household Product Retailers to Accept Mobile Money

Accelerator 5: Promote Open-Architecture Policies and Interoperability Within and Across Ecosystems

Accelerator 6: Allow Mobile Money Transfers to Move Seamlessly Across Borders and Mobile Networks

Accelerator 7: Pilot Programs to Test Innovative Approaches, Create Impact Analysis, and Develop Replicable Opportunities for Scale

Accelerator 8: Protect People through Client Education and Consumer Protection Measures

Accelerator 9: Facilitate the Ability of People to Put Cash In and Take Cash Out of Their Mobile Wallets

Accelerator 10: Tackle the Identity Issue for the Unbanked

Read the whole Report here...