Electronic money gains ground with interconnection of systems
The Bank of Mozambique has announced the interconnection of the operations of SIMOrede, M-Pesa, mKesh and e-Mola in order to facilitate the use of electronic channels for money issues.
SIMOrede is the system used by the ATMs of the commercial banks while M-Pesa, MKesh and e-Mola are the electronic money services of the three mobile phone providers, respectively Vodacom, TMcel and Movitel.
A statement from the central bank explained this means that clients of these institutions can transfer and receive money between them in a convenient and secure manner. “Users of mobile phone services now have their lives made easier”, stresses the document.
Previously, payments through electronic channels were constrained by the lack of interconnection between the systems.
“In practice, this meant that clients of one of these institutions could neither send money to numbers of other operators, nor receive, which reduced the use of electronic means of payments and greatly affected access to financial services and their use by the majority of the Mozambican population”, the central bank statement said.
As a result of the expansion of the mobile phone network, the opportunity has been created for the widening of access and use of financial services provided by electronic money institutions in Mozambique.
The central bank explains that this is an important step, as the interconnection of the operations of M-Pesa, mKesh and e-Mola, marks a milestone that will drive the expansion of financial services.
“With this achievement, we have reached one of the main goals of the National Strategy for Financial Inclusion for the period 2016-2022, which will certainly make an undeniable contribution to the expansion of electronic payments in the country”, the document concluded.
(AIM)
