Experts Harp on Collaboration at M-Pay Conference

Experts in mobile payment system from across the globe gathered in Lagos last week at the maiden edition of Mobile Payment (M-Pay) Nigeria conference and urged all stakeholders in the emerging industry to collaborate for the smooth launch of mobile banking in Nigeria.
The M-Pay Nigeria conference, organized by Financial Technology Magazine attracted mobile payment experts from abroad, mobile network operators (MNOs), banks, insurance companies, MFBs, third-party operators, telecommunications hub service providers, and switching companies.
Mr. Deji Oguntonade, co-founder, SugarAnt Technologies said collaboration would ensure the success of mobile banking in Nigeria, and that the new generation models for mobile payments create a huge role for payment intermediaries.
According to him, the first phase of adoption of m-Banking by Nigeria banks was denial, when the banks vehemently denied that they would ever need m-Banking, arguing that customers may not want to do transactions on the mobile phone.
The phase two, which was the time of experimentation had a few young people in the IT department of banks convince some managers to experiment with “unimportant” things like alerts. “The take-up was slow especially because no marketing budget was spent on this and that fuelled the opinions of sceptics. Most Nigeria banks are still hovering in this space,” he said.
The third phase was a period of collaboration; the fourth phase, the mainstream stage at which it dawned on banks that mobile banking was practical; and the fifth stage, a time of maturity when the banks realized that mobile banking was a whole new ball game, and then needed to pay more attention to it.
Oguntonade however, urged banks to separate mobile banking operations from regular banking. “Key stakeholders should compete to launch the next best payment system, and collaborate to offer a robust, widely acceptable platform.
Mr. Ike Nnamani, CEO of Medallion Communications said telecommunications gateway has a dynamic role to play in the emergent mobile banking industry. According to him, such hub provides an infrastructure for interoperability for all mobile commerce transactions.
He stated that the value proposition of m-payment hub is anchored on aggregation and interoperability robust infrastructure and compliance; which enable the m-payment service providers to focus on the establishment of own brands while the technical work is left for the hubs to worry about.
“Our vision is to ensure a seamless interconnection amongst all the telecommunications operators interconnected at our facility in a timely and cost effective manner. The goal of our company is to ultimately become the largest single telecommunications interconnect exchange in Nigeria and one of the best in the world in terms of efficient service delivery to the subscribers,” Nnamani commented.
Mr. Yves Eonnet, CEO of Tagattitude informed that USSD, SMS, SIM Tool Kit, NFC, and Near Sound Data Technology (NSDT), are the available technologies for m-payment today. But he argued that NSDT was the most secure technology, which respects privacy and is available on every phone; independent of telco and very innovative.