Kenyan telecoms to set up shared cash transfer platform

Kenya's mobile phone companies will be required to develop a common system for facilitating mobile money transfers across rival networks, a move that could cut the cost of sending money and increase the availability of the service countrywide. The Business Daily reported that a task force set up by the prime minister's office has recommended that mobile firms create a seamless mobile money transfer system regulated by the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK). Mwaura Nduati, the head of the national payment system at CBK and also a member of 12-member team that formed the task force, said CBK will not force any of the mobile firm's operators to share its mobile money network agents. He said what CBK was asking of the mobile phone operators is similar to the banks' settlement payment system. A central clearing house for mobile phone payments is likely to increase usage of the service just like sharing of ATMs by banks has increased uptake of debit cards, Mwaura said. The clamour for a common mobile money transfer system follows a request by Airtel in February to have a seamless withdrawal mobile money transfer service, but the market leader Safaricom said this was likely to kill innovation in the money transfer industry as subscribers may not receive money sent to them instantly. Currently, recipients of money across networks receive an SMS notifying that money has been sent to them and then use the message to withdraw from an agent of the transmitting operator. Operators will form the new system. The Task Force has recommended that an inter-operator cooperation regulate the services.