233 Tech.

Month of Electronic Payments: MTN MobileMoney

Posted on 23. May, 2010 by Nana Kwabena Owusu in Unwired

MTN Ghana the biggest mobile operator in Ghana launched its take of electronic payments, MTN MobileMoney in July 2009. MTN MobileMoney is not unique to Ghana and is offered across the countries of operations of the MTN Group in partnership with local banks. This is how MTN describes the service;

MTN MobileMoney is a convenient, secure and affordable way of sending money, buying airtime and making basic utility payments from your MTN mobile phone.

MTN emphasizes the fact that MobileMoney is available to every MTN subscriber (a huge plus in partnership negotiations: approximately 8.8 million Ghana;  116 million Africa) but it is not restricted to only subscribers as non MTN subscribers can access the service from authorised agent locations.  It is also available to both bank account holders and people with no bank accounts, which seems to be an important trend in providing such services, as txtNpay has similar features. MTN has an interesting component in its service in the form of ATM withdrawals, which although not yet deployed in Ghana might make MobileMoney a more full service option, differentiating it from its competitors. The benefits for getting a MobileMoney account on the MTN Group website for the service includes;

• Deposit cash into your account at MobileMoney Merchants outlets
• Send and receive money from the convenience of your mobile phone
• Buy prepaid airtime for yourself and other MTN customers
• Manage your MobileMoney account – check balance, change pin,etc
• Withdraw cash at any MTN MobileMoney agents or any participating ATM carrying the MobileMoney logo

MTN MobileMoney is powered by technology from Fundamo a mobile banking and payment software solutions provider.

Fundamo’s Mobile Wallet provides a rich set of mobile financial applications such as local and international money remittances, airtime purchases (own and family and friends), person to person payments, bill payments, and a full set of account management options such as balance enquiries, and card and pin management.

MTN has partnerships with nine (9) local banks, (CAL Bank, Ecobank, Fidelity Bank, GTBank, Intercontinental Bank, Merchant Bank, UBA, Stanbic, Zenith Bank) to offer MobileMoney services and there are a host of agent locations spread out throughout Ghana. In October 2009, Bruno Akapaka a MobileMoney executive, in an interview (a must read) with Paul Leisha of the GSM Association’s Mobile Money for the Unbanked (MMU) blog stated that the service had over 20,000 customers to date and around 1,200 Mobile Money Authorized Merchants.

Registration for an MTN MobileMoney account involves directly visiting any MobileMoney agent;

Step 1 – Take a copy of your Identity Document
Step 2 – Go to an authorised MTN MobileMoney Agent
Step 3 – The agent will capture your details and give you your MobileMoney pack
Step 4 – When prompted, select you MobileMoney PIN

The interview linked to above provides a better and more interesting insight into the process. MTN leverages one of the most under utilized (albeit operator pricing is at fault), MMS.

Paul: And how does a registration take place?

Bruno: It either takes place using the merchant’s phone (a specific type of handset is required by the merchant) or the internet. Using the phone method, registration merchants simply take a picture of the customer as well as their ID card and then send both by MMS to our servers for registration.

Becoming a merchant requires meeting certain requirements set out by the Bank of Ghana.  MobileMoney merchants are approved by partner banks after completing KYC requirements and some required details captured into the MobileMoney platform. A wallet is created for each merchant for their transactions. This is followed by training, loading of e-cash, branding and commencement of business. Merchants earn cash commissions on all transactions.

MTN MobileMoney has a lot of similarities to txtNpay a service we profiled previously and MTN opting to become a partner with txtNpay proves that MTN wants a sizeable chunk of the mobile financial services (payments and remittances especially). It is a smart move on the part of MTN because they get transaction fees for both services and irrespective of which service wins, MTN as a business benefits.

To get most of your questions answered about the MTN MobileMoney service visit this Frequently Asked Questions section on the MTN Group website.

Related posts:

1. Month of Electronic Payments: TxtNpay
2. Month of Electronic Payments: Zap by Zain
3. Month Of Electronic Payments: eTranzact Ghana
4. The Month of Electronic Payments (Updated)

Tags: electronic payments, electronic wallet, Ghana, mobile, mobile money, mobile wallet, money transfer, mtn, prepaid units