Critical requirements that must be meant to kick-off the implementation of the mobile money policy of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, may just be the obvious hurdle that will technically put on hold the pilot of the project proposed to be implemented in Lagos State, the commercial nerve centre of Nigeria.The apex bank had in early August indicated the intention of the Federal Government to comply with the global trend of a cashless society whereby mobile payment is considered as the most convenient means of transaction.Currently, a global practice that reduces cases of stolen cash, mobile money or mobile payment is the use of mobile phones as a wallet whereby the users have access to his money, anytime, anywhere through his mobile phones without a visit to the traditional banking hall.The two popular standards used for mobile communications, Global Mobile Communications, GSM, and Code Division Multiple Access, CDMA, both of which are phone based and uses a SIM, Subscriber Identification Module, bearing the user subscription key will be device for the mobile payment transaction.Though laudable the idea seems, experts are worried that not looking before leaping may scuttle this brilliant idea. They are particular sad that as a nation, policy issue that are critical to the survival of the scheme are not yet fully addressed.According to the chief executive officer of Medallion Communications Limited, Mr. Ike Nnamani, the nation must get the technology right for mobile system to work in the country saying that since it is technology driven all partners in the scheme must be critical integrated into how mobile money or payments.In a chat with the Nigerian Compass, Nnamani whose company offers direct interconnection with all telecommunications operators in the country including GSM,CDMA,fixed lines and value added service operators stressed that whatever technology that the operators will deploy as a platform for the system to ride on must be such that will address the cost implication for the final consumer.Nnamani who was one of the guest speaker at a stakeholder's sensitization forum organised by the Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, explained that transaction cost should not be such that will scare the users of the system warning that such could defeat the purpose of the scheme.For instance, Nnamami said that where a multiple payments providers begin to adopt different market strategy and multiply access technology the users will be one to bear the final cost in terms charges.According to him, the cheaper it is for the operators to deliver the services to the users, the cheaper it is for the users noting that the right technology should not be compromised adding that the code to be used and where and who to get the code from is must be critically resolved before the pilot of the system begin.It is worthy to note that the CBN has already licensed mobile payment scheme operators.Nnamani observed also that there is also the problem of balancing network resources with the revenue from the scheme considering the fact that is not a major source of revenue for the operators. Mrs. Bise Olanukuran, a consultant with KPMG Consultant who was also at the forum shared the worry of Nnamani.She noted that if operators see it as a new income source while banks consider it as another way of increasing their customer base, the intent of the scheme will be affected stressing that since there are no global standard for mobile payments, the scheme is at risk if the operators are not mindful of the success of the scheme.She is also worried that since there are multiple players in the scheme, all operators will be confronted with the task of revenue sharing noting that the ability to define revenue sharing formula is going to be difficult since the operators will not be making the same infrastructure investment.Also Managing Director, Teledoms Groups and former President of the Association of Telecommunications Company, ATCON, Dr. Emmanuel Ekuwem said serving the needs of the rural people in the scheme is a challenge that will confront the scheme.According to him, while that maybe possibly solved with time, who becomes liable when there is an infringement on the right of the user in the course of a transaction is a challenge may take long time to resolve.But Mr. Mosh Adetoro, General Manager at Qrios, an ICT infrastructure company told GlobalNet that if operators are transparent that should not be a problem stressing that what should worry stakeholders more is the security of transaction, which according to him must be consciously tackled before the pilot of the scheme begins.He observed that schemes of this nature consistently go through threat from fraudsters who are cracking the system for loopholes that will make the system to cave in advising that digital signature will go a long way to secure the system from such attack adding that certification authority for the scheme should be published by the regulatory bodies for proper evaluation.
Click here to read full news..
