Mobile phone maker Nokia is one many players positioning itself for an anticipated surge in the mobile financial services industry. “This is one of the biggest opportunities out there for mobile. The potential is enormous, but it is a very complex business,” Teppo Paavola, head of Nokia’s Money service told Reuters recently. Nokia has invested in privately-owned Obopay and is scheduled to rollout its service, which is based on SMS (text messaging), with several banks early in 2010. The global mobile financial services market is estimated to become worth USD 27 billion by 2014.
Paavola said, “The focus is on emerging, growth markets.” Without naming particular countries or regions, he cited onerous regulations as an obstacle to getting started in one of the biggest markets: India. Kenya is known as a pioneer in the industry, where Safaricom’s M-PESA serves 20 percent of the population: 8 million customers. An average of USD 10 million changes “hands” each day via this service in Kenya.
Additional resources:
Reuters article, November 13 “Nokia sees enormous potential in mobile money”
http://in.reuters.com/article/businessNews/idINIndia-43903020091112?sp=true
Nokia
http://www.nokia.com
M-PESA
http://www.safaricom.co.ke/index.php?id=745
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