Most stakeholders in the mobile money transfer industry are trying to do everything by themselves and that there is huge scope for collaboration leading to growth, said an expert.

“The problem right now that we are seeing is that most people are trying to do everything by themselves,” continued Sumit Bakshi, head of Mobile Money Transfers at UAE Exchange, a leading remittances company.

“The banks, if they launch something they want to do everything by themselves.  If a telecom operator launches a product they want to do everything by themselves.  I think there is a huge scope for collaboration and third party like UAE Exchange to be brought into the picture.  Everyone working in their own domain, still collaborating, can come up with a very, very viable product.”

Bakshi is a leading expert speaker at the upcoming Connected World Forum taking place from November 19 to 22 at Atlantis The Palm, Dubai.

The biggest challenge for the UAE Exchange is financialisation, Bakshi added.

“For the UAE Exchange it is slightly different.  We are not a bank, and we are not telecom operators.  But we think there is room for a third party led model like us who have experience of handling retail financial services, and who have very strong ground presence,” he explained.

“Technologically we do not have any issues; we have a very strong technical team who can handle any new advancement in technology.  But it is the regulatory environment around the realisation of actual funds for remittance that causes us the biggest problem.”

Ultimately, the mobile money end user will be drawn by the convenience of it, said Bakshi.

“Initial acceptance or rather initial trials can be built on the novelty factor of the service.  But, their attention will be based on convenience.  If they can actually see that it is more convenient than me zipping out my wallet and paying, then only will they stick to it.”

Bakshi added that the industry is still in an exploratory phase and that “right now, all across the entire spectrum of launches there is only one, M-Pesa, which can be really called successful.”

More than a thousand lifeline services experts are gathering in Dubai for the Connected World Forum, incorporating Mobile Money Global and Mobile Health Global.

More than 100 leading industry experts will address the conference while some 70 exhibitors will display the latest lifeline technology and services.

The Connected World Forum consists of three separate streams:  Mobile Money, Mobile Health and Mobile Life. – TradeArabia News Service