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A free app available for any smartphone, SnapScan works almost like a pocket ATM linked to the user’s debit or credit card account. Instead of handing over a card, customers scan a unique SnapScan logo posted at the cash register with their camera-enabled phone. They enter the amount, type in a pin code (or use touch ID) and a few seconds later the vendor’s phone chimes with a confirmation sent by SMS. It’s quick, painless, and entirely safe, says Ehlers. SnapScan is backed by Standard Bank, one of South Africa’s biggest banks, and uses cutting-edge fraud protection technology. More to the point, he notes, it means that vendors never have access to actual credit card details. “That means no one is noting down your number so he can go shopping later,” says Ehlers.

It’s been so long since 30-year-old Cape Town entrepreneur Kobus Ehlers last used his wallet that he’s not even sure where it is. “My car maybe?” he says as he reflexively scans the cheerfully decorated offices of his startup, SnapScan. When it’s pointed out that leaving a wallet in a car in a city infamous for break-ins and carjackings may not be a good idea, he shrugs. He probably doesn’t even have the equivalent of five dollars in it, he says. “I never use cash. Credit cards are over. There are much better ways to pay for things.”As the co-founder of one of South Africa’s most successful electronic payments apps, Ehlers is of course expected to use his own product. But the real reason he isn’t worried about his wallet is because Cape Town is a city seduced by the idea of cashless and cardless transactions, in no small part because of his company’s success. “You can literally wake up in the morning, buy a cup of coffee, go to your dentist, have lunch, pay your bills, take a taxi, go out for dinner, and donate to your favorite cause without using cash or a card,” says Ehlers. “And in none of that is there any risk of your card details getting stolen, or you getting mugged for your cash.”

It’s been so long since 30-year-old Cape Town entrepreneur Kobus Ehlers last used his wallet that he’s not even sure where it is. “My car maybe?” he says as he reflexively scans the cheerfully decorated offices of his startup, SnapScan. When it’s pointed out that leaving a wallet in a car in a city infamous for break-ins and carjackings may not be a good idea, he shrugs. He probably doesn’t even have the equivalent of five dollars in it, he says. “I never use cash. Credit cards are over. There are much better ways to pay for things.”As the co-founder of one of South Africa’s most successful electronic payments apps, Ehlers is of course expected to use his own product. But the real reason he isn’t worried about his wallet is because Cape Town is a city seduced by the idea of cashless and cardless transactions, in no small part because of his company’s success. “You can literally wake up in the morning, buy a cup of coffee, go to your dentist, have lunch, pay your bills, take a taxi, go out for dinner, and donate to your favorite cause without using cash or a card,” says Ehlers. “And in none of that is there any risk of your card details getting stolen, or you getting mugged for your cash.”

The purpose of this study is to assess the challenges and opportunities of mobile banking in Dashen bank of Ethiopia with specific objective of assessing the current practices on both customers and the bank side, benefits and challenges realized by the bank and customers, the driving forces and opportunities in the bank for the adoption of mobile-banking .

What to watch out forMaximum daily limits. Transaction limits depend on how you are sending the money, while a total 24-hour cap of $9,000 applies to all transactions being sent by you out of the US.Changing fees. Depending on where you are sending to, how you are paying and how you are transferring money, your fees may vary. Although a base fee of $3.99 is applied to most transfers, keep an eye on this category when actually completing your transfer to make sure it doesn’t change.No hedging options. WorldRemit only offers one-off transfers, unlike some of its competitors that offer additional tools to help you save money. Hedging tools are most often used to lock in an exchange rate, helping you save money on future transfers if the market shifts against your position.Inconsistent markups. Exchange rates vary through WorldRemit and depend not only on the currency you are sending to but also on the destination country. Expect mid-market markups anywhere from 1-4%.

Easy-to-use website. Signing up and sending money can be done in as little as a few minutes, and support can be accessed through phone, email, live chat and FAQs.Worldwide network. Customers in more than 50 countries can send funds to over 150 countries using a variety of methods, including bank transfers, cash pickup at thousands of locations, door-to-door delivery, delivery to services like Alipay and more.Flexible payment options. Pay with a credit or debit card, from your bank account, through Apple or Google Pay and even with prepaid cards.Fast transfers. Cash pickups, WorldRemit Wallet transfers and airtime top-ups are typically available instantly after sending, while mobile money and bank deposits may take one or more business days to process.

Cash pickups, WorldRemit Wallet transfers and airtime top-ups are typically available instantly after sending, while mobile money and bank deposits may take one or more business days to process.

To minimise risk, shops where the services are available buy credit in advance from Fawry before they collect any money from the public, earning a cut from the fees.

“Acceptance is critical to us and we have been keen to develop solutions to expand the acceptance footprint,” he says. “The alliance with Fawry helps this by adding segments that were not accessible before. It is a typical fit with our strategy for penetrating the unbanked segment.”

Family Bank Limited, a leading bank in Kenya, has partnered with London-based financial technology firm SimbaPay to launch an instant money transfer service from Kenya to China through WeChat – a service that will help boost Kenya-China trade. Over seven million customers and businesses in Kenya will now access SimbaPay’s international money transfer service to send money to China’s WeChat Pay from Family Bank’s PesaPap mobile banking application and USSD service. Non-customers too will enjoy the service via a dedicated PayBill number 261059 on MPESA.

In addition to the China (WeChat) service, SimbaPay also supports money transfer to Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi, Ghana, Nigeria, Madagascar, Niger and India. 

China is Kenya’s biggest trading partner. In 2017 alone, businesses in Kenya imported well over USD 4 billion worth of goods from China. The current existing solutions for sending money to China take multiple days to reach the recipient’s bank account, with some requiring the supplier to physically visit an agent to collect their money. This new service easily overcomes these barriers.

Customers, when purchasing, simply need to scan a QR (quick response) code in store using their phones. And the customer can use any MasterCard or Visa card to sign up. Ehlers added: “We tried to design a product which allowed absolutely everybody to be part of the formal side of the economy.”

In an interview with How we made it in Africa, Ehlers explained: “A sizable part of why we built the product the way we did really relates to how the economy of South Africa functions. So to give one example, we built SnapScan so the merchant selling the products doesn’t need any special hardware at all. No point of sales system is required.” Merchants who don’t have bank accounts can redeem payments at any Standard Bank ATM or selected supermarkets.

SnapScan’s partnership with Standard Bank has allowed the company to grow faster. But Ehlers and his team are still required to adapt to the differences between the corporate and start-up worlds. He explained: “A start-up can quickly make a decision and then two hours later start implementing, whereas in a large corporation there is a process, things move a lot slower. Politics are involved and different people – and that’s not necessarily a bad thing, just the reality.”

Fawry Banking and Payment Technology Services- a joint venture between HSBC, Arab African International Bank, Bank of Alexandria, EFG Hermes, Raya Holding and Fawry management)- is an electronic bill payment and presentment (EBPP) network that enables the Egyptian public to conveniently and securely pay their bills and topup their mobile phones through the various electronic channels available at banks and a network of retailers. Consumers will be able to pay their bills, buy their tickets, topup their phones and process other types of payments by seeking the service through any member bank or member retailer on the network. We link billers of all sectors to our nationwide network and integrate with them to make their bills available in electronic format

The government regulates Ethiopia’s telecommunications market, meaning that there is only one telecom provider and others are not allowed. Both BelCash and M-birr are strictly technology providers. M-Birr General Manager Thierry Artaud sees the regulated market as a benefit.

Dutch company BelCash is focused on mobile banking, working in partnership with banks to provide easier access to finance through bank accounts. Ireland-based M-Birr is a mobile money service that works with micro finance institutions where no registration at a bank is needed.

Smartel Money Ltd is company that is rooted in the Kingdom of Lesotho. The aim and focus of Smartel money is to provide mobile payment services, savings & credit and monetary transfers and serve thus as an alternative to traditional banking systems. We aim to provide to individuals, institutions, organizations, multi-industry sectors and governments with the cutting edge, fresh and innovative financial management system in this ever changing world. We also aim to improve the quality of cloud computing (payment as a service) and interaction between computers and people to achieve their payment processes.

Smartel Money Ltd is company that is rooted in the Kingdom of Lesotho. The aim and focus of Smartel money is to provide mobile payment services, savings & credit and monetary transfers and serve thus as an alternative to traditional banking systems.

Financial-technology companies are changing the face of finance. Over the past ten years, what started mostly as disruption in the payments space has expanded to every corner of finance. Even areas once assumed to be safe are seeing new entrants and competitive threats. Wealth and asset management, wholesale banking, capital markets, regulation and risk (“regtech”), and trade finance are just the most recent areas to see innovation driven by small technology-first players.

Whether fintechs ultimately win or lose significant market share may be beside the point; they are redefining customer expectations and continue to create new business models. As fintechs are frequently building their entire technology stacks from the ground up, they are highlighting incumbent financial institutions’ weaknesses not only in digital user experiences but also in operational efficiency. Whether a new digital brokerage wins or loses may not matter when customer expectations around brokerage fees change. A retail foreign-exchange fintech having 5 or 50 percent of the market may matter less than retail FX margins disappearing for everyone. Whether the next crops of “neobanks” disrupt retail banking may be less important than their highlighting for users and customers the possibilities of a modern, digital-first experience.

f your downside potential from disruptive threats. Incumbents can choose to invest in companies they partner with or to focus on areas they know well or interesting adjacencies. We frequently advise clients to find ways of keeping corporate venture-capital groups slightly at arm’s length to attract skilled managers, and we recently have seen increased interest in investing in established outside managers who focus on financial technology. Transform yourself to be more like a fintech. Digital transformation is a difficult but necessary process for most incumbent financial institutions. Redesigning core infrastructure to be more modular and dynamic, driving a new agile operating model, and upgrading technology and workforce skills are all necessary to compete with outside threats, fintech and otherwise. Build your own (internal) fintech. The road for transformations is normally measured in years, but the competitive threat from fintechs is today. Increasingly, we are seeing financial institutions try to beat fintechs at their own game or self-disrupt areas of their business before others can. The key to success in new digital business building is to combine the agility, speed, and talent of a start-up with the “unfair advantage” of an incumbent by leveraging existing assets (e.g. customers, distribution, or infrastructure). Serve the fintechs. A few financial institutions can find their competitive advantage in creating scaled, efficient technology and operations to enable others to embed financial services in their customer experiences. This “banking as a service” business model depends on finding a profitable path to white labeling but draws on the inspiration of large tech platforms. Enabling the customer experiences of others has quickly moved beyond just enabling fintechs to also working with big technology companies, retailers, telecommunications companies, and beyond. Ignore fintechs. Although ignoring the competition is rarely the right choice, some businesses are built on moats—frequently regulatory—that are difficult to disrupt or they play within narrow markets. Companies should prioritize where they need to focus and in doing so know when they need to pay attention and when they need to avoid the distraction of disrupters.

In 2012, two brothers, Chijioke Dozie and Ngozi Dozie, founded Carbon, a Nigerian digital bank start-up. Carbon began as a digital lending company, but now the company provides a variety of services, from payments to savings to investments. According to Dozie, “Our annual report will be released in the second quarter after our financial audit is complete, to gain customer trust, Chijioke Dozie, the CEO, told ProWellTech in 2019 that the company will make Carbon’s financials public.” If you note, before we published the 2019 fiscal year update, we released a year under review in January 2020.Gross profits, profit or loss before and after tax, liabilities and equity, total assets, etc. are included in Carbon’s annual report. Carbon’s year of analysis reveals processed payments, client base, disbursed loans, and investments made on the platform. The business with about 659,000 customers processed N96.54 billion (~$241.35 million) according to Carbon’s year of analysis for fiscal year 2020, which is up 89 percent compared to the same period a year earlier. N25.51 billion (~$63 million) was the disbursement volume for its lending arm, an improvement of 9.1 percent from the 2019 financial year. Investments worth N13.02 billion (~32.55 million) were made on the site, up by 365 percent from FY 2019.The factors that affected these numbers last year, according to the company, included the launch of an iOS app that pushed clients Acquisition, introducing its feature for low-income customers with USSD banking services; and a social chat feature to allow faster transactions. Besides that, Carbon obtained a microfinance bank license in an attempt to become a digital bank. The license implies, according to Dozie, that Carbon’s customers are given additional protection by the Nigerian Deposit Insurance Corporation through depositor insurance. The standard Carbon wallet is now a full-fledged bank account, Dozie says, and clients will transact on the platform like any bank would.

Fawry Banking and Payment Technology Services- a joint venture between HSBC, Arab African International Bank, Bank of Alexandria, EFG Hermes, Raya Holding and Fawry management)- is an electronic bill payment and presentment (EBPP) network that enables the Egyptian public to conveniently and securely pay their bills and topup their mobile phones through the various electronic channels available at banks and a network of retailers.

BelCash founder Vince Diop does not believe a limited network or high illiteracy rate will be a barrier for introducing mobile banking.

BelCash and M-Birr are mobile banking technology providers that have been in Ethiopia for the last three years to set up mobile banking and mobile money services.

ICT platform for mobile banking: micro money transfer (P2P), pay my bill, send local/international remittances, online payment solutions, buy calling credit. Ethiopia is one of the most underbanked countries, only 5% of the population has a bank account. Currently 617 bank branches in Ethiopia are serving 85 million people. Most rural areas lack banking infrastructure. Innovation: send money directly to anyone with a mobile phone, a free bank account for the receiver is opened promptly.

M-Shwari is a paperless banking service offered through M-PESA. It will: Enable you open and operate an M-Shwari bank account through your mobile phone, via M-PESA, without having to visit banks or fill out any forms. Provide you the ability to move money in and out of your M-Shwari savings account to your M-PESA account at no charge. Give you an opportunity to save as little as KSHs.1 and earn interest of up to 6.65% p.a on your saving balance. This cash is moved into the savings account via M-PESA. Enable you to access micro credit product (loan) of a minimum of KSHs.100 any time and receive your loan instantly on your M-PESA account charged at a facility fee of 7.5% Save for a fixed period of time (Lock Savings Account) and earn interest of up to 70% of the Central bank Rate. This is a product for everyone who feels that banking should be hassle-free. No forms to fill in, no branches to visit. Just one click on your phone and you have a savings account!

Currently 617 bank branches in Ethiopia are serving 85 million people.