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Mobile Money in Liberia

Mobile Money is a term use to refer to Mobile financial services, mobile payment, mobile mobile money transfer

banking, mobile money transfer and mobile wallet all of which generally refer to payment services operated under financial regulation and performed from or via a mobile device.

The offering of this service by the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) Operators in Liberia, particularly LonestarCell MTN http://www.lonestarcell.com/ is quite timely and has it’s advantage in this increasingly rushing country.

However, like the M-Kesh of Mozambique, it will slowly but gradually get there.

Moreover, I think that the GSM Operators or Liberia Telecommunication Authority http://lta.gov.lr/ should come up with a unique nomenclature for this service instead of Mobile Money which is the term use when referring to the technology.

Recently in Nigeria, GlobaCom and UBA have signed a (MOU) with the Government to launch it’s Mobile Money service which though not yet functional but has named U-Mo (your mobile .. your money).

In other countries in Africa, eg. Kenya, the M-Pesa is blooming and have help bridge the gap of urban to rural banking and money transferring services, when fully adopted in Liberia, it will help the economy in a more vital way. Institutions, like the government can make salary payments through Mobile Money for county officials thereby avoiding transporting huge amount of dollars from county to county for sole purpose of salary disbursement.

Why Mobile Money

Many people have to travel far from home to find work and need to be able to send money back to their families particularly in our counties in the context of Liberia. Money transfer cost is very high and others can not afford the attached cost.

Traditionally, money was often transfer in a risky unregulated manner, why others use long expensive trips carrying cash in an unsafe and unpredictable environment. Technology in the banking sectors has closed this gap unless otherwise. This is where Mobile Money comes in, which users can make frequent transfers without having to personally access a bank anytime anywhere.

Advantage

Mobile Money can lower the cost of remittances as it removes the need for physical points of presence and ensures a timely and secure method of transaction. This technology has been a great success with a lot of benefits to the individuals, society and the Governments.

However, there are a few aspects LTA (Liberia Telecommunication Authority) as a regulator of GSM operators need to address as it relates to Mobile Money Transfer.

Should the regulator allow a non-banking institution as the case of all the GSM companies in Liberia to get into the banking domain by accepting deposits and doing most of the functions of a bank without applying the same level of regulations on it as the banks have it?

How can the regulators and financial institutions plan to bring interoperability in mobile banking?

How do the unbanked customers of mobile banking build their credit history?

As the Case in Liberia, since we are in our earlier stages of Mobile Money, we need to carryout a lot more awareness and publicity of the service in order to have it widely spread and adopted in the soonest possible time.

Since it is only LoneStar Cell MTN whose offering the service currently, I will outline the user procedure on how the service works.

To register for Mobile Money you need to: