Perspectives 2019 2020 Public Sector

Citi Perspectives 41 Mobile Money Momentum: The Race Towards Interoperability, Interconnectivity and Inclusivity Across Sub Saharan Africa Dustin Ling Esther Chibesa For the past ten years, Kenya has led the way as the preeminent mobile money success story. The spread of mobile money lifted one million people out of extreme poverty from 2008 to 2014 — nearly 2% of the population 1 . Mobile money has proven it can serve as a powerful tool to help tackle SDG 1 and many others given the interconnected nature of the global goals and the crosscutting benefits of digital financial inclusion. In 2017, over 70% of adults in Kenya had used mobile money, a figure larger than those who hold bank accounts, only about 55% of adults 2 . At the same time, mobile money solutions and the ecosystem for it has not taken shape quickly enough across east, west and central Africa, a region in critical need of poverty reduction given the poorest and most vulnerable communities in the world live south of the Sahara Desert. The ecosystem evolution has seen pockets of excellence rather than a consistent exponential growth in the region. In the last year we have seen ecosystems players — both public and private — drive the acceleration of modernizing and maturing the mobile money model at a faster pace and beyond Kenya. We will focus on key mobile money developments and pin point opportunities and challenges across Sub Sahara Africa, while outlining what stakeholders/treasurers of multinational organizations need to consider from an interoperability and connectivity perspective. 1 Suri & Jack 2016) 2 UNSGSA