Five years after its launch, the word “M-PESA” is routinely used as a verb in Kenya, so it’s only fitting that the service is now the subject of a book. ‘Money, Real

interoperability is one of the most widely discussed topics in the mobile money industry. Almost everyone has a view on the subject – and to make matters even more complicated, there are

In recent months, mobile money services have attracted some unflattering headlines* in response to technology related challenges.  When the technology platforms through which mobile money services are delivered experience downtime, customers are unable

Reviews the emerging literature on the definitions and model taxonomies employed in mobile banking; the status and drivers of global adoption of these schemes; the take-up and usage patterns of customers and their socio-economic impact; and, finally,

Before a mobile money service can turn a profit, it must first be operationally healthy. This may sound obvious (okay, it definitely sounds obvious), but today many mobile money practitioners are unable to report with clarity whether their service is operationally healthy along the dimensions that matter most.

So today we’re pleased to present a solution to this problem: the GSMA Mobile Money Metrics Dashboard. This Dashboard presents practitioners with an easily digestible summary of their operational metrics that matter most. This tool is more than an excel spreadsheet: for existing customers of Comviva, Fundamo, Sybase 365, or Utiba, the Dashboard can be integrated as a reporting feature free of charge.

For a mobile money service to scale and achieve profitability, it’s critical to have well designed customer tariff and agent commission models. This is a topic we’ve written about extensively already: Neil Davidson and I shared some insights on how MNOs can best incentivise agents in the “How to Incentivise a Network of Mobile Money Agents” section of our recent agent network handbook; in August I wrote a blog post detailing four common pitfalls that MNOs should avoid when designing their agent commission models; and any reader who’s used the GSMA Financial Model will know that pricing and commissions are one of the most sensitive variables at play.

When most people hear the phrase “to turn a profit, we need to manage our costs”, they usually take it to mean “to turn a profit, we need to reduce our costs”. But when it comes to mobile money, practitioners have found that some costs can be done away with more easily than others. So the trick, then, is to understand which are strategic (and must be protected), and which are discretionary (and can be curtailed).

So far on this blog, we’ve written about the role that indirect benefits play in enabling a mobile network operator (MNO) to turn a profit from a mobile money service – but what about the most obvious source of value, direct revenue from customer fees? After all, as stated in a previous post, this is often the single source of value upon which MNOs evaluate the business case for mobile money.