Vritti September 2017 | Page 20

vritti 20 Changing Lives September 2017 MNOs dominate mobile financial service landscape in WAEMU MNOs lead the mobile financial services market in the WAEMU region. MNOs are best placed to offer successful mobile money service due to their huge customer base, expansive airtime distribution network in both urban and rural areas, free availability of mobile channels like USSD and SMS, strong brand presence and extensive marketing experience. Backed by new-age technology platforms following the fintech approach, the MNOs offered inno- vative low-cost mobile financial services reaching the unbanked. They cater to the large number of financially excluded people not served by banks. Orange, Airtel, Onatel, Sotelma, MTN and Moov are the dominant mobile money players in the market. Orange Money is the largest mobile money service in the region available in 6 countries – Burkina Faso, Cote d’Ivoire, Guinea Bissau, Mali, Niger and Senegal. It has achieved scale in many countries (Figure 2). Figure 2 : Orange Money Mali and Senegal - 2016 data MAURITANIA MALI NIGER SENEGAL GUINEA- BISSAU GUINEA BENIN NIGERIA COTE D'IVOIRE SIERRA LEONE LIBERIA GHANA CENTRAL AFRICAN REPURLIC TOGO 21.6 Turnover 3.5 Total subscribers MILLION MILLION Active subscribers MILLION 142.4 MILLION Transactions volume MILLION 2,175.8 BILLION Transactions value 542.2 BILLION 26.2% Transactions value /GDP 6.2% BILLION BURKINA FASO GAMBIA 3.5 BILLION CAMEROON EQUATORIAL GUINEA SAO TOME & PRINCIPE GABON CONGO MILLION 1.6 44% MALI MNO's mobile money services are dominated by basic transactional services like cash-in, cash-out, money transfer, airtime top-up, bill payments and merchant payments. Very few MNOs have experimented with banking service such as savings and loans. However, MNOs are continuously innovating and launching new services that are extending the use of 3.5 1.1 31% 63.9 SENEGAL Source: Sonatel 2016 financial result mobile money to include wider population. International remittance is an apt example. Multi-country MNOs have launched mobile money based inter-country money transfer services. For example, Orange has launched direct money transfer between its Orange Money customers in Cote d'Ivoire, Senegal, Mali and Niger. Etisalat/Maroc Telecom