Kenya to Begin Six Months’ Pilot Interoperability for Mobile Money Transfer

Mobile money interoperability pilot between Airtel Money and Safaricom MPESA will be launched next week.

CS Joe Mucheru says mobile money interoperability pilot between Airtel Money and Safaricom MPESA will start on Monday 22nd January 2018. @AIRTEL_KE @Safaricom_Care @CA_Kenya @CBKKenya

— Dick Omondi (@domondi) January 19, 2018

This will see mobile money users make cross-network transfers at no additional cost in the country.

This is as a result of increased competition and the widespread adoption of mobile money in Kenya that is driving the push to interoperability.

The ICT ministry and the Communications Authority of Kenya have been spearheading the process.

In an interview with ITWeb Africa, via email, Safaricom CEO  Bob Collymore said “If you look around the world, and even in the region, there has been a trend in the sector towards consolidation. Many players are realising that it is very costly to roll out proprietary networks, so infrastructure sharing is becoming more practical.

On the other hand, we see global internet firms, such as Facebook and Google, are offering the same services as mobile service providers. Such Over-the-Top players are very profitable, yet own no mobile networks and do not need to invest in running and maintaining of such networks.”

Read: What will define financial inclusion in Kenya by 2020? 

Interoperability has been highlighted by the GSMA as a key objective in the development of mobile financial services.