Whose Today’s Guest?
Miyanda Mulambo is an experienced business manager and sales professional with demonstrable experience at the top having run 3 companies as CEO over the last 15 years. I have worked successfully in mobile financial services, health, education and corporate event services sectors, all leveraging technology to deliver services.
How Mobile Money Business Operates
When an agent opens the business, they sign up with a particular mobile operator that they want to be an agent for. They then identify and get all the necessary documents that they need from the city council to set up their booth.
Once this is done the agent needs to have a K5, 000.00 which is a minimum requirement by most mobile operators as a float. That K5, 000 will then be deposited into a bank account that is provided for by the network operator. The agent will then receive an equivalent of that money in Electronic money.
So let’s imagine you first transaction involves a person wanting to deposit a K1,000 in their mobile money account they will give you the hard cash while you send the equivalent of that money via the mobile money service. Meaning you will remain with 1000 hard cash and 4000 in electronic money.
Their situations where an agent can have hard cash and zero in electronic value, this will require you to go deposit the hard cash in the bank account in order to maintain afloat.
Creative Thinking to Grow the Business
The mobile money business works well when it’s around other businesses, if you a grocery store for instance having mobile money services in your store is an added advantage and an add-on per se compared to having a standalone booth as most operators in Zambia current do.
It is advisable to get other products that the network provider offers e.g. Airtime, Sim cards, etc. consider investing in an array of products that you can carry from your network provider.
Another way of gaining a profit from this kind of business is by incorporating all the network providers and even banks that offer a similar service in one booth.
Mobile money agents also need to consider coming together, this can be done by forming an association where mobile money agents are able to express and share ideas amongst themselves and with the network providers.
A practical example of this can be seen from the actions that ZOONA(a mobile money Business), who created a crowdfunding venture for their agents. These were interest-free loans given to the agents with the aim of helping their agents’ businesses grow.
It is such ideas that people can begin to explore, to work in a silo can be quite difficult in an industry where you are so many. It is about time that people started working together.
Dealing with Losses and Other Risks Involved
In terms of losses, the key focus should be reconciliations and this should be done on a daily basis, you need to understand what happens with each and every transaction that happens in your business. This will greatly help you when you employ someone to run the business on your behalf as you will have an understanding of how the business runs, how the transactions flow. The only aim to curb such events is having a good record-keeping system in place and reconciling the transactions to understand the process in detail.
Key Insights:
- Look at your mobile money business for the long term. Expand your network, the more booths you have the better.
- Electronic banking is the future, with the rampant spread of the Corona Virus most transactions will be electronic.
- Mobile money agents need to start working together, form associations where they can express themselves and share ideas on how they can grow among themselves and with the network providers
“Working in a silo can be quite difficulty in an industry where you are so many.”
