East Africa will soon have a common mobile money platform that will enable users to send money from one country to another without any difficulty under exchange rates approved by central banks.
This is according to Godfrey Kyama, e-banking advisor to the Commonwealth, in his presentation at the ongoing Tech4Africa conference in Nairobi.
Kyama said the platform is the brainchild of the the East African Community (EAC) and will be in place in a year’s time.
“We advise on Know Your Consumer (KYC) to avoid any fraud when dealing in the platform; this will rely on the use of identification cards which the countries have implemented,” said Kyama.
He said Kenya is in the lead when it comes to the use of mobile money, which contributes four per cent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP), though the industry still faces problems, including mobile money fraud. Kyama said a draft bill addressing this is ready and will soon be presented in parliament.
Kyama also advised developers in the room to start developing for financial institutions other than just mobile network operators (MNOs), as this was uncharted territory with great potential.
“Package your product first before discussing it with any company,” he warned developers, as many organisations could hijack their ideas.
