A Split for Financial Inclusion?
MTN's plan to seperate its MoMo service 5G arrived East Africa GSMA Mobile Money Report
Hello, Amazing One!
It's Monday! Excited?
Quick flashback. Do you remember the Jack Dorsey tweet I cited in the NFT section of the last NL? That tweet was finally sold for $ 2.9 million. Surprising, or not?
A Split for Financial Inclusion?
The telecommunications giant, MTN plans to split its Mobile Money arm (MoMo), and launch it as a fintech standalone.
The Why? The group's CEO believes that the market is undervaluing the business, and thereby seeks to improve its perception by splitting. According to MTN, this plan could see its Mobile money arm grow and would in turn improve access to financial services in the area that it is present.
The use of Mobile money has been a huge driver of financial inclusion in some parts of Africa, by allowing users escape traditional banking channels and enable them make payment via an electronic wallet.
This move by MTN could help grow the mobile money reach on the continent, and thereby strengthening financial inclusion.
Some Highlight
The MTN's MoMo service currently operates in 15 African countries. As of March 2020, the group had about 35.1 million active MoMo customers.
In 2020, MoMo processed $154 billion worth of transactions (excluding those completed in Nigeria and South Africa).
More than 12,000 transactions are processed every minute on MoMo
In 2020, the number of active Mobile Money (MoMo) users increased by almost 35% across 15 countries.
Welcome, 5G!
Kenya's telecom giant, Safaricom has announced the launch of the region’s first commercial 5G services, and would start with a trial in some selected urban cities.
During the trial period, Safaricom wants to test the internet speed of the service. After which the service would then be further expanded to more than 150 across nine towns over the next 12 months.
A Goody 5G bag
With 5G, Safaricom aims to empower its customers with super-fast internet. The technology would also be applied in areas such as virtual reality, augmented reality, and artificial intelligence for Safaricom subscribers.
5G also allows the provision of super-fast internet speeds in high-density areas, as it can support up to 1 million connected devices per square kilometer compared to 4G which can only support up to 100,000 connected devices in a similar region.
What else?
In this trial phase, Nokia and Huawei have been chosen as the two technology partners to implement the roll-out of Safaricom’s 5G network.
On COVID and mobile money
A few days ago, GSM Association (GSMA) published its annual 'State of the Industry Report on Mobile Money.
The numbers
Mobile Money transactions rose by 65% in 2020.
The number of registered accounts grew by 13%, to 1.2 billion.
For the first time, more than $1 billion was sent and received in the form of remittances globally every month via mobile money.
Beyond Expectation.
At the start of 2020, there were fears that the pandemic would cause mobile money transactions to decline, due to job losses and income cuts during the pandemic.
However, the report stated otherwise, as GSMA noted that there was a dramatic acceleration in mobile transactions during the pandemic. A key factor that played in this was the restriction and limited access to financial institution that the pandemic brought. Hence, this made Mobile Money a more accessible payment means.
How did Africa fare?
According to the report, there are 310 live mobile money services in 96 countries. Of the 310 services, 171 of them are in Africa, with 157 in sub-Saharan Africa specifically.
Sub-Saharan Africa has been at the forefront of the mobile money industry for over a decade, and in 2020 continued to account for the majority of growth, and made up about 43% of all new accounts.
Knowledge Bank📕
Altcoin
The word Altcoin comes from two words: “alt” and “coin", which is expanded in full as “alternative coin.”
Altcoins are the other cryptocurrencies launched after the success of Bitcoin. And it is used to describe any cryptocurrency that is not a Bitcoin
Generally, they market themselves as stronger alternatives to Bitcoin. They ride on the fact that they tackle some of bitcoin’s limitations. Even with many similarities amongst altcoins, they still vary widely from each other.
Simply put, a coin that isn't a bitcoin is an altcoin.
Recommended Reads 📝
How to mint your first NFT as a Nigerian digital artist
These undergraduates left university to build flux, a payments startup now in YC
If you are reading this for the first time, join the BuFT fam by subscribing.