Tag Archives: cashless

Cashless pushes around Africa

Nigeria: The Central Bank of Nigeria set a tariff of 3% for deposits and 2% for withdrawals of more than Naira 500,000 (equivalent to ~$1,380) from individual accounts. They also set a tariff of 5% for withdrawals from corporate accounts, and 3% for deposits, over Naira 3 Million (equivalent to ~$8,280) from corporate accounts. This is in the states of Lagos, Ogun, Kano, Abia, Anambra, and Rivers States as well as the Federal Capital Territory. This is to promote cashless transactions. (Source)

Uganda: The Bank of Uganda has banned merchants from imposing surcharges for the use of electronic card payments and also the setting of minimum and maxim amounts that can be transacted on cars. In addition, they have asked banks in Uganda to harmonize tariffs that they levy on customers of banks for when they use each other’s ATM’s.

Prohibition of Merchant surcharge and the fixing of minimum/maximum transaction amounts on electronic Payment Card pic.twitter.com/DjbDUEpr99

— Bank of Uganda (@BOU_Official) September 19, 2019

Kenya: Today is the deadline set by Kenya’s Central Bank after which the old series of the Kshs 1,000 (~$10 notes), bearing the image of the first President of Kenya, will cease to become legal tender for transacting in the country.

Tanzania: Mobile app lender Tala suspended issuing loans in Tanzania. The company which claims to have lent over $1 billion to 4 million individuals will continue in Kenya which they say, with 3 million customers, is a critical part of their global business, and where they are piloting new financial education services. California-headquartered Tala also has customers in The Philippines, Mexico and India, and is backed by investors like PayPal, IVP, and Revolution Growth.

-In Zimbabwe, $1 in cash is worth ~$1.50 in digital money
-This wedge is due to the government's bad monetary policies
-The government has blamed mobile money operator Ecocash, banning it from offering cash-ins/cash-outs
-Which only widens the wedge! https://t.co/lUVCFLLl4e https://t.co/AVrxnADghG

— John Paul Koning (@jp_koning) October 2, 2019

Zimbabwe: The Cashless push has gone awry in Zimbabwe where the Government has now banned Ecocash agents from making cash deposits and withdrawals for customers as these are now happening at values that are at variance. This has resulted in a situation where $1 in cash is worth ~$1.50 in digital money.

Ecocash is the second largest mobile money company in Africa; we watched what Asia did and what M-Pesa did. We also drive savings (launched a mobile govt. bond after M-Akiba) and insurance (now are the largest digital micro -insurer in Africa) – @JabangwePNN #AfroAsiaFintechFest

— Bankelele (@bankelele) July 15, 2019

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Prepaid & Debit Card Usage

Have cards peaked? Statistics from the Central Bank (CBK) show that Kenya has 220,000 credit cards and 12.4 million debit cards, but that a decline in card usage can be attributed to increased usage of other payment channels like mobile money transfer services.

We all have ATM cards that are in effect debit cards. There are also prepaid-debit cards such as I&M (multi-currency), Bank of Africa (Toucan), Nakumatt (global) etc. They are good for making online purchases, payments as supermarkets, and sometimes for overseas travel payments.

Other notes about the cards:

They are not credit cards, but using prepaid/preloaded/debit cards badly may affect your credit history.
Many people didn’t realize what the difference was between credit and debit cards (which look the same) until companies like Uber (taxi) came about (which initially only accepted payments by credit card in Kenya)
Check that they work locally before you travel. Swipe the card as many times and in many places (supermarkets, local e-commerce, local taxi etc.)
Many new cards don’t allow users to re-set the pin to a number they are familiar with.
Using a card locally also enables you to see how the notifications work (email or SMS sent after each charge)
Watch you fees. Swipe as much as possible, and avoid going to the ATM, to withdraw cash as that may cost you about $4 (Kshs 400).
Ensure you get a statement from the bank to confirm the card usage charges.
Check with your bank or provider before you travel that the card will work in specific countries. Also, while they are not a credit card but it’s good to inform your bank ahead of time before you travel to a particular country where you intend to use a prepaid/debit card -as Via/Mastercard/AmEx/Verve may block transactions from unfamiliar places.

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9 Findings on Cashless Payments in Kenya

The future is said to be digital or cashless. So can one live and transact without using paper currency? Nairobi is as good a place as any to try in 2016. And while it’s largely doable, but not quite entirely possible, to get around using a mix of cards (credit/debit) and mobile money (i.e. M-Pesa), it also brings up a lot of interesting findings.

What happens when you try not to pay In cash?

Cash is still king: Cash gives you the flexibility to buy for anything, any time from any vendors. It is the fastest way to pay, and there are still places that only take cash e.g. landlords, matatus, and a Chinese restaurant – no card or no M-Pesa accepted.
Cards are easier to pay with than M-Pesa: By having chip & PIN, there’s no need to even show an ID card. And it takes 4 presses to pay for a transaction while it takes about 25 presses to do an M-Pesa transaction, and even more if you have to draw cash from your phone from another bank account. M-Pesa is not convenient if you’re in a rush, and with so many menus and buttons to press, it’s also easier to make mistakes and send money to the wrong business account. You have to be active and pay attention and also confirm with a staff member, showing them your phone screen, before you commit. Even then, they look at the message generated on your phone and trust that it’s genuine, as they often don’t have access to the business phone where the message confirmation is sent.
M-Pesa needs a reboot: It needs NFC up to a limit – say for purchases of less than Kshs 1,000 ($10) – so you just tap and go. Lipa Na M-Pesa signs are all over, but it some shop staff are not aware of if the payment is to be processed through ‘Paybill’ or ‘Buy Goods’ (two dedicated business payment options inside a phone M-Pesa menu), and some even give the owners M-Pesa number, which makes for a costlier transaction for the business.
Cards Usage is limited: They are generally not accepted for purchases of less than Kshs 1,000 ($10). At some petrol stations, they are not accepted at night, as a fraud prevention precaution.
Paying by card or phone builds business relationships: I got to pay for a week’s worth of newspapers, by M-Pesa. The newspaper vendor gave me free newspapers and I sent him M-Pesa midweek. So in the first part of the week, he was giving me credit, and in the second part, he owed me newspapers. I now know his full name after buying a newspaper from him for 3 years, and only knowing one of his names. I also didn’t know that Java restaurants take M-Pesa, but I’ve been paying for coffee by phone and got pinged by SMS to participate in their customer service surveys – with a possible invitation to coffee tasting event sometime in the future.
Paying by card or phone sucks liquidity from an economy: The transport is very challenging, and I think the celebrated launch of Equity Bank and Google’s Beba Pay failed because of other issues. Digital payments meant that owners jumped to the first in the queue in getting cash, from where they currently are – last! The fares paid by passengers during the day are shared between drivers, conductors, route managers, and policemen, and going digital takes away this easy daily cash; DigItal payments mean formality and more tax collection for the government, but these will be an extra burden for employees.
You become less generous when you go cashless: I give tips several times a day, and that is just not possible without cash. When you pay cash, you can leave a portion of your change as a tip that you hand to the waiter at Java, This is not just for restaurant waiters, but also for people who check your tyre pressure at the petrol station and watchmen who guard your car at night when you park at a public places. Also, Kenya doesn’t have a tipping culture or mechanism like the USA does, and when you can direct a portion of your card payment to a tip for the waiter.
With cards you go into debt, but with M-Pesa, you run out of ‘cash’ quicker: Which is better? Note, if you run out of M-Pesa. You have a few options. One is to link your bank account to M-Pesa so you can load up your phone. Another option is to take a loan from M-Shwari. Approval takes a few minutes and you can borrow almost $150 (Kshs 15,000) that you have to pay back in 30 days with a 7.5% fee. Besides the costs, you can only take one loan at a time before you have to pay it back. So your temptation is to take more than you need, just in case you have another emergency and won’t be able to draw that
There’s no real difference between card and mobile: In fact, they are merging. Uber has shown this – the phone navigates, and is preloaded with the card, which pays.

These findings are from about a week and a half I spent, going cashless, and trying not to use any cash. This was for every day buys like meals, parking, groceries, utilities, and newspapers.

This was inspired by a conversation with Lucy Mbabazi who’s a card payment proponent and also by a previous experiment done at KopoKopo (who had an intern try to go 60 days using M-Pesa, in lieu of cash – but I can’t find a link to their post).

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