Ever since its advent, mobile money services have particularly been rather efficient in extending financial services to users from across the globe. The number of people that use open and shared mobile money services has grown quite considerably over the years as the services continue to streamline the financial sector. Although the mobile money ecosystem has proven to be useful, its future success depends largely on the capacity of the industry to adapt to the ever-changing landscape.
Another factor that is pivotal to the success of these services is the benefit they provide to users. Following the introduction of an open and shared mobile money ecosystem, it has proven to have quite a number of benefits.
Offers a wide variety of services to users
One of the notable benefits of an open and shared mobile money ecosystem is the diverse range of services it offers to the users. For a typical subscriber, mobile money services are divided into four primary areas which are mobile financial services, offline payment services, online payment services as well as machine-to-machine automatic payment services also referred to as M2M.
The basic mobile financial services that mobile money subscribers use include withdrawal, deposit, transfer and purchase of products and services. Every single one of these services is done on a mobile platform. Although the carriers are not considered banks and most of them do not offer loans that bear interests, there are areas in which mobile money service providers have partnered with banks and offer loan services. Mobile money services can therefore be interpreted as a bridge between banks and subscribers.
Another brilliant service that subscribers access through an open and shared mobile money ecosystem are the online payment services. Through these services, users are able to make online purchases and pay for goods and services on the internet. This boosts the efficiency and convenience of online shopping which is advantageous.
Offline payments are also made possible through the open and shared mobile money ecosystem. An example of areas in which this becomes useful is in paying human to machine or human to human. Some of the machines that support mobile money transactions include automatic teller machines, transit fare card readers as well as PoS terminals.
Machine to machine payment services are also an area in which mobile money services come in handy. Automatic meter reading, and payment is an example as payment of fees for utilities can be done by residences and enterprises.
Enhancement of cross-border money transfers
The enhancement of cross-border money transfer is a notable benefit. Prior to the development of mobile money technologies, international money transfers were not only expensive but also took rather long to transact to completion. Mobile money has however revolutionised this sector and made it more efficient and affordable. As it stands, there are several mobile money services that allow for instant international money transfers.
Boosted trust
The fact that mobile money services allow you to track your financial transaction and records anytime anywhere makes it more trustworthy. Subscribers therefore have more trust in mobile money services as compared to banks. This is largely due to the fact that they are always in contact with their finances and can check their account balances, recent or past transactions as well as charges.
Improved access to financial services
One of the common challenges that people faced with regards to financial services prior to the invention of mobile money services is easy access to the financial services. People had to travel long distances to get to banks and stay in long queues just waiting for the services. There was also the issue of getting to the bank during operation hours, with few to no banks operating 24 hours a day.
An open and shared mobile money ecosystem provides the ultimate solution to this problem. With mobile money services, you can access the financial services right from the comfort of your home. There are hardly any wait times and you can access the services 24 hours a day. This is as a matter of fact beneficial not only to the individual users but also to the economy as it facilitates the development and thriving of 24-hour economies.
Enhanced safety
The open and shared mobile money ecosystem has enhanced, quite considerably, the safety of the financial resources of the subscribers. One way it achieves this is by requiring user authentication before having access to the mobile money accounts. Subscribers can also change PINs and passwords whenever they feel like these details have been compromised. This ensures that no one besides the subscriber can access the account hence ensuring safety.
Easy investment
Another noteworthy benefit is the fact that it makes it easy for interested investors to make investments. Whether online or offline, subscribers have their finances in their hands and can make the investments they are interested in whenever and wherever they choose to. This in turn benefits the user in various ways and helps in boosting the economy as well.
Statistics project that mobile service providers register more subscribers by the day therefore improving access to financial services and promoting financial inclusion.
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