Mobile Money – Subscribers (Thoughts & Experience)

Mobile Money: This article focuses on how and what mobile money subscribers think and experience in their lifelong mobile money journey. A lot has been said about how to design, what to design, how to price, and what services to give (from a service provider mindset). What the customer wants, how the customer wants it, and what the customer understands and sets depictions in his mind about this whole drama (for a layman, it’s a drama or movie where he or she is an actor on the side) are not visible.

All big brothers are getting fond of magic or the sticky word “Pay” and coming out every day with 2-3 names ending with “pay,” like “abcPay”, “thisPay,” “thatPay,” or even adding the word “pay” to their current well-established and well-known brand names.

Introduction

Financial inclusion is all about accessibility and affordability. If we start looking at this story not from a service provider or financial inclusion driver point of view but from the customer’s or subscriber’s point of view, then the Ministry of Innovation will demand a new sub-department or ministry with the name “Ministry of Needs.”. 

Until today, almost all (if not all) solutions that are coming out on the market are designed in an anti-clockwise manner, meaning a solution gets born and looks for the problem to absorb it. The reference in the last sentence is in relation to mobile financial services. There is no dull day in the payments business these days. The unglamorous world of clearing and settlement is the recipient of generous attention due to the continuous launches of visible overlay propositions, often by non-banks.

Main Story

We believe embedding core elements in the proposition, operating, and delivery models will enable players to ‘play to win’ in these turbulent times. The crux of financial inclusion is left to fade away, and if no corrective measures are taken in time, then this will become history and a legacy for the new age. Playing to win needs a new diversion. Like I said some time ago, start making progress on un-developing to innovate. Innovation or a new breakthrough can’t be achieved if you also look at the same point where the rest of the world is.

The classic example here can be this: after an individual goes through school and university (17 years ) and spends another 10 years in the industry, the person in front of him or her makes an effort (in less than 10 minutes) with the help of a 2-pager CV to access him or her. And by asking four stupid questions, we will determine our capability to manage and work. Better yet, we should learn the difference between being data-informed and data-driven. Anyone can be financially excluded, and as a result of the economic downturn, we believe many more people than usual are struggling financially.

As per Wiki, “Financial inclusion, or inclusive financing, is the delivery of financial services at affordable costs to sections of disadvantaged and low-income segments of society, in contrast to financial exclusion, where those services are not available or affordable.” which, in the real world, has been left behind. In a typical setup of the mobile money model, customers want to make use of their funds, which are present in the wallet, and to date, no MNO or MFS service provider of mobile money is able to assure this (agents run out of liquidity almost every day, or today Agent ABC, then tomorrow Agent XYZ, who is just next door), though there have already been too many efforts put on the table by all service providers to overcome these challenges.

Agents sometimes play tricks or run out of steam due to their lack of knowledge or interest in their own businesses. People or customers that are financially excluded are often not able to access affordable credit (to their surprise, their own agents are also facing the same issue and are so-called touch points to solve this problem; this is like a problem where doctors treat disease ABC and die because of the same himself, which is not at all a good sign), and they are not looking for or willing to experience difficulties in obtaining a bank account.

For example, a mobile money user goes and cashes into Agent ABC in area XYZ, which is close to his or her home or office, and 2 days later the same person now needs cash, so go back to the same agent in the same area and meet the same individual in the shop and ask for funds, and gets surprised of his or her life when Agent says sorry, I don’t have money, please find it at some other agent.

In this case, a subscriber with no knowledge of how this thing works will start building incorrect perceptions and feel unsecured about money, and in some cases, he or she might cry his or her heart out and only ask one question: “Where is my money, etc”. If this case is not handled well, then the game is over.

Mobile Money Services – Success

The success of mobile money heavily depends on accessibility. The agent is the primary access channel for mobile money as the conduct agent-centred transactions like registrations, cash-in and cash-out transactions, Agents trade mobile money for a commission.

They also act as the first point of contact for subscribers, and it is prudent for a mobile money operator to invest in agent education. In the above example, if the agent fails to explain and convince the subscriber or customer about what has happened to his or her money and how money can be accessed from that day on, the particular customer is lost. The operator defines the agent qualification criteria after considering the requirements of the regulator. The density of agents has to be predefined by the operator to maintain the profitability of agents as well as their accessibility to subscribers.

There are numerous interpretations and descriptions of financial inclusion, varying from simple to sophisticated. Essentially, it refers to the capacity of an individual, family, or community to obtain the necessary financial services or products. If individuals lack this skill, they may be labelled as financially marginalized or excluded. Mobile money must be situated in the appropriate context for it to flourish. Real users were asked several questions, and their responses were recorded.

 Hash Tagas : #Mobilemoney_basics , #mobilemoney, #agents

Conclusion : The primary purpose of mobile money was to achieve financial inclusion by providing a banking service to those who are not part of the banking system and avoid visiting traditional bank branches. This particular group desires convenient access to money, with the utmost importance placed on its availability based on their specific requirements. The fee charged for transactions is a crucial aspect of mobile money since it operates on a transaction-based model, unlike a deposit-based system. This point has been highlighted numerous times before.

The banking sector gains profits from funds that are left untouched in customer accounts, while the mobile money sector earns its profits by facilitating a higher number of transactions. In countries like India, where people have a strong sense of their family history that extends several generations, the practice of conducting bank transactions without any associated fees has already been established. Lately, the proposal to charge a small fee for the handling and facilitation of financial transactions has sparked uncertainty and intrigue among the general public.

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