MTN, ESWATINI MOBILE INTER-OPERABILITY LAUNCHED

MBABANE – The country’s two network service providers, Eswatini MTN and Eswatini Mobile have launched an inter-operability that would see merchants, among others, transfer money from one platform to the other. 

The launch and signing of the inter-operability between the two network providers was witnessed by the Central Bank of Eswatini (CBE) at the Royal Swazi yesterday. CBE Deputy Governor Felicia Dlamini said this was a significant milestone because it would bring customer convenience. 

She said for governments, inter-operability was considered important for financial inclusion because it had the potential to introduce economies of scale and scope, create network effects, and allow customers to easily carry out desired transactions.

Opportunity

“The unbanked and people with limited access to basic financial services have the opportunity to use any network or access point (e.g. ATM, POS device or agent) to perform financial transactions without being clients of all the available network providers,” she said. For merchants and customers, Dlamini said inter-operability supports seamless receiving of funds and making of payments for goods and in the process promoting economic activity resulting to economic growth and it reduced reliance on cash.

The deputy governor said the CBE was not only looking at domestic transactions but also keen to support cross-border transactions e.g. reduced cost of cross-border remittances especially the salient challenges associated with de-risking in correspondent banking arrangements

“The medium-term view of the Central Bank is that the industry should aspire to foster multilateral integration.

This will benefit the customer, the financial services providers and drive economic growth through enhanced economic activity,” she added. 

While this was a positive development, Dlamini said the Central Bank was aware that provision of efficiency and convenience had come with costs related to systems development.

Therefore, the expectation was that at initial stages there would be surcharges for user transactions.

“However, we are hopeful that with time, the two mobile money service providers will be in a position to eradicate the surcharges - In particular, when realising the benefits of economies of scale from increased volumes,” she highlighted.

She said this they drew from the experience of the East African Community where these inter platform transactions are now flowing without attracting surcharges.

She also highlighted that of importance was to note that these developments required support from the relevant regulatory entities including the Central Bank, Financial Services Regulatory Authority, Communications Authority to mention a few.

“To successfully drive inter-operability, we should include provision for it within regulatory frameworks (Practice Note for MMSPs and NPS legislation). We should also provide for the supervision and oversight of inter-operable services (risk management, fair and open access, consumer protection, etc),” she stated. 

System

Eswatini MTN Chief Executive Officer Wandile Mtshali said Mobile Money had evolved – promoting financial inclusion and making it possible for every adult to access a safe and reliable payment system.

He said the introduction of MTN Mobile Money benefited those who were previously unbanked. It provided choice to those privileged to have banking accounts.

“Each time our customers need to make payments for goods and services, they can either use their banking accounts, MoMo or, move cash from one platform to the next. That they are spoiled for choice means they enjoy an improved quality of life,” he said. 

He said as a business, they were optimistic that inter-operability between MTN Eswatini and Eswatini Mobile would encourage more people in the Kingdom to perform numerous transactions on the Mobile Money platform.

“MTN Eswatini believes in the value of partnerships. One of many such partnerships is with the government for tax collection and Registrar of Companies’ services.

Partnerships

In the coming years, MTN will continue to pursue partnerships with like-minded institutions that embrace technological inter-operability, or seamless interactions with all other national payment systems,” he added.  

Mtshali appreciated the support and guidance they continued to receive from the Central Bank of Eswatini, the regulator, who remained committed to ensuring that their payment systems were safe, accessible, and inter-operable.

“We appreciate the partnership with Eswatini Mobile and looking forwarding to establishing mutually beneficial partnerships in other spheres of our core business,” he concluded. 

Eswatini Mobile Chief Marketing Officer Khulile Dlamini also appreciated the partnership between the two entities and stated that its primary mandate was to make convenient money transfers for customers between the two mobile money providers.  “This will help us as a nation to easily transfer or cash out money in the comfort of our mobile phones while helping in the economic growth of the country through the financial inclusion,” he said. 

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