This document discusses how mobile value-added services (VAS) can help catalyze uptake of mobile money in Nigeria. While mobile money services were launched in 2011, adoption remains low due to issues like technology interoperability challenges, lack of customer understanding and trust, and insufficient expertise in rollout strategies. The document notes that Nigerians already pay for digitized services like VAS. It recommends that the government, mobile network operators, and private sector collaborate to harness the opportunity of VAS to drive more Nigerians to use mobile money services, with the goal of transitioning the customers accustomed to VAS payments to the mobile money ecosystem. Initiatives discussed include using mobile services for agriculture and implementing well-

1. VAS for MobileMoney
Catalyzing MobileMoney Uptake from 1st Principles
The Nigerian case

2. Discussion Roadmap
• MobileMoney (MM) in Nigeria today
• Why is Nigerian MM uptake not yet fantastic?
• What is VAS/mVAS?
• Transiting from the Known to the Unknown: useful data
on the potency of VAS as a door-opener
• Harnessing the Govt-telco-private sector opportunity
• Next steps

3. The Landscape today
• Mobile payment uptake numbers are still low for a
2011-launched service that had so much promise
• MMOs have not broken the cash-culture inertia
• But, Nigerians already pay for services via voluntarily
digitized money (user-initiated VAS)...since GSM launch in
2001
• Some encouraging figures of e-commerce, m-
commerce & presently live portals indicate an appetite
(jumia, konga, linda-ekeji blog, nairaland, eskimi & alexa data)
• A key challenge is how to intelligently & beneficially
transit that crowd to the m-payment eco-system
(ask Telcos who planned to transit airtime agents to MM agents)

4. Why the low MM Uptake?
• Reasons for low adoption in Nigeria are well documented:
• technology interoperability (NIBBS, MNOs & MMOs)
• Un-abating mass ignorance levels of prospective users
the trust-understanding-benefit perception cycle hasn’t kicked in
missing groundswell: Government-Telco-Bank collabo initiatives
• insufficient expertise & pedigree in rollout & agency
approach (e.g. "scanty-menu" syndrome of most rolled out MMOs)
• lack of finance & underestimation of a MM business build
(the agent network, then technology and marketing)
• This presentation addresses what we are to start doing now
or could have been doing irrespective…assuming these 4
problems don’t go away

5. By VAS, we mean..?
• FIRST, THE USUAL SUSPECTS...mVAS TODAY
• Ringtones
Mostly • Wallpapers & themes
entertainment • Video clips & games
• Caller Ring-back tunes (CRBT) & RRBT
• Text-based subscription & SMS chat services
• OTHER VAS FOR BOTTOM-PYRAMID NIGERIANS
• mEDU (via SMS or apps done right e.g. Nokia Life)
Higher-value, • mHEALTH
“closer-to-you” • mAGRIC
services • mRELIGION
• Revenue collection
• As well as the usual suspects listed above, intelligently
customized to be really need-filling services

6. How much can VAS drive MM uptake?
• Let’s crunch these numbers..
• Russia: 14% of gross MNO inflow in Q1 2007, hit 20% in 2012
• Ireland: 30% of gross MNO inflow 2008, hit 35% in 2012
• Ghana: 20% of gross MNO inflow (a specific MNO)
• Nigeria: ??? Not with the NCC…ask WASPAN
- Assuming Nigeria today hits 10% of MNO gross, that translates
to a potential 11 million Nigerians using MobileMoney
- Operators reluctant to make it happen, but some other factors
coming together as we speak will shift the goalpost
• This is not about transaction volumes, because what
people want to buy remains fairly constant in this context.
• This refers to actual Nigerian citizens regularly using
MobileMoney because it’s trusted, easier to use, has a
stable eco-system, connotes safety, savings and profits.
* MNO: Mobile network operator

7. Initiatives for Government to drive
1. M-AGRIC: Government’s present build of an accountability
infrastructure for Nigeria’s greatest GDP-contributing
industry is driven by mobile: an opening for a visionary MMO
2. Apart from all other issues before them, if the NCC and IT
Ministry applied the real interpretation of “local content
protection” to the Nigerian telecoms space, VAS &
MobileMoney will move off at full throttle
3. Well thought-out Govt-Bank-telco initiatives open MM uptake
doors globally in similar markets (cashless Lagos as a push
policy. Pull mechanisms assign power to the user, more sustainable)
4. No University curricula/roadmap for VAS & MobileMoney

8. Next steps
• Some MMOs and independents have taken the bull by
the horn to effect change, chaos-irrespective:
• Microleverage
• WASPAN
• Cellulant
• Rervbox
• Accendo Associates…and a host of others
• Initiatives that identify the blue oceans & that nudge the
system to push these recommendations have begun
• Universities are being approached directly, but the
Government needs to embrace the idea and “stamp” it
• VAS providers are seeking better ways to hit 20% of
Operator inflow in 2-3 years’ time
• …the groundswell has begun

9. Desire a copy of this presentation or
wish to continue this conversation?
Kindly mail me..
saderinlola@rervbox.com