Rajiv Bhatia, head of EMEA sales for Ericsson’s m-commerce division, Ericsson has called for closer collaboration and clearer regulations of the industry to give mobile commerce a boost on the continent.
Bhatia was speaking at the Mobile Money Africa conference, in Johannesburg, yesterday (Tuesday).
Bhatia highlighted the fact mobile enjoys huge penetration in Africa while there are still large proportions of people who are unbanked in the traditional way.
It is estimated around 80 per cent of Africans are unbanked.
”As mobile money uptake grows, there is a need for true enterprise grade platforms which provide strong security, ability to handle high transactions load, flexibility to enable efficient business processes and open APIs to connect towards the eco-system,” News From Africa reported Bhatia as saying.
Uncertainty in regulatory guidelines for mobile money, coupled with limited cooperation among m-commerce providers, is hampering the industry from unlocking its full potential according to Bhatia.
He added that the industry needs to get the basics right to build trust amongst end users, who are sometimes still wary about the security and reliability of mobile money offerings.
Bhatia said there is currently an opportunity to increase usage of m-money, particularly in the area of payments, salary disbursements and savings.
