Month of Electronic Payments: Zap by Zain

Posted on 04. Jun, 2010 by Nana Kwabena Owusu in Unwired

Zain Ghana is the fourth largest telecom provider in Ghana but has been seen as one of the most innovative mostly because of their ‘pre-register your Zain number startegy’, used at launch. Zain is trying to leverage this consumer perception to its benefit in its services and launched its mobile money service, Zap in March 2010. Zap has been available in otheer Zain markets since early 2009 and has had some considerable success in East Africa.

During the launch of Zap, Philip Sowah, Country Manager of Zain Ghana said;

“….. Zain is creating a wonderful world where customers can move about freely with their mobile phones transacting on goods and services. Our aim is to create an eco-system where Zap enriches lives by providing customers with increased security and flexibility, reducing the need to carry cash…….”.

Zap like similar services in Ghana, is a stored value account which is also connected to financial
institutions. This enables customers to transfer funds from one stored value account to another and also access banking services.

From zain Ghana’s website here are the services you get through Zap.

Send airtime to yourself, to friends and to family
Send money from your Zap account
Receive money on your Zap account
Perform Cash-in and Cash-out activities i.e. Buy or Sell Zap
Pay your bills
Pay for goods and services with Zap and much more

Zap is run in partnership with three Ghanaian banks, Standard Chartered Bank (thir flagship partner in all Zap participatingcountries) , United Bank of Africa and Ecobank. Additionally Zap is available through through Zain accredited agents, a strategy adopted by most of these services. Zap also seems to be available for only Zain subscribers, which may be a disadvantage for winning market share as this market matures but a smaller share does directly translate into a less profitable service.

As a Zain subscriber signing up for Zap requires the following;

Your Zain Ghana SIM card in your phone
Original and a copy of your ID document (passport/voter identification card/driver’s license/National ID/NHIS card)
A ﬁlled out application form (you can ask any Zain centre , Zap Agent or any of the Zap partner banks for assistance)

The Zap agent will review your application, verify your ID and electronically (via fully encrypted SMS) submit your application details to Zain Ghana’s Mobile Commerce platform for account activation. Upon successful registration, you will receive a confirmation SMS. In order to provide a layer of privacy, transactions on the Zap platform; Cash-in or Cash-out, can be done using your Zap Nickname instead of your mobile phone number.

Tariffs for Zap transactions seem reasonable especially for money transfers, although a better assessment would be to compare their fees to those of similar transactions by its competitors (that comparison will come soon).

In ensuring that they differentiate their service and compete more effectively, Zain Ghana can take ideas from other Zap countries which have been successful and tweak them for Ghana. One example of an idea which caught my attention was the use of Zap for international money remittances as a component of Zap in Kenya. Money Transfer is one of the huge markets in Africa (and Ghana) and a seamless experience where cash is available to be spent without visiting the bank or transfer services location may be well received. Another important feature is that Zain is accesible a spart of the Zain One Network service making it available as subscribers move between countries.

Zap has been active for only about two months and therefore there is little data on its uptake by subscribers or the number of agents they have acquired. However there is a benefit to partnering with banks which opens up all their branches, approximately 100 locations for Zap transactions. We will have to give Zap sometime to assess how it competes in this new but increasingly competitive market.

To get additional insights into Zap and its rollout in other countries, read this interview on the GSMA’s MMU Blog when Paul Leisha interviewed George Held, Group Marketing Director of Zain’s One Network.

Tags: bill payment, electronic payments, electronic wallet, Ghana, mobile, mobile wallet, money transfer, payment solutions, prepaid units, zain, zap