Page 173 - The Digital Financial Services (DFS) Ecosystem

ITU-T Focus Group Digital Financial Services
Ecosystem

• Cross scheme utility – must be able to accept payments from multiple schemes; should be transparent
to the merchant which scheme the customer is using (as feasible)
• Some access to cash in/cash out agents

• Similar to M1:
• Could be taking remote (i.e., phone) orders for delivery
• Might also be taking remote payments for small credits extended to customers

• Some, perhaps small, likelihood that the merchant will have a bank account, so may need to utilize
eMoney/bank transfer capabilities

3.3.3 Economics/cost sensitivity

• Cost sensitive, but perhaps less so than M1

• May be willing to pay a small amount for remote transactions to the extent that they can generate
incremental sales

3.3.4 Appetite for risk and need to manage risk

• Could have more volume and higher value transactions than M1, but still unlikely to pose meaningful
financial or reputational risk on the system
• Like M1, will likely require only "light weight" know your customer account set-up

3.3.5 Operational assumptions
• May have access to a bank account for some/all settlement, but not necessarily

Similar to M1
• Must be easy to enrol as a merchant (to the unlikely extent that anything beyond P2P processes are
required)
• Some tax-related accommodations may be required from governments, particularly in the early stages,
so as to not disincent merchant adoption

3.4 M3: Small Farmer

This segment represents a mixture of "subsistence" and abundance farmers. Some amount of B2B sales to small
and mid-sized markets/resellers; may already be using apps such as mFisheries and MFarm that provide up-
to-date market prices for their produce via text messages and dedicated apps, and sometimes act as payment
intermediary between buyers and individual/group sellers. It is important to note that many small farmers also
have characteristics of individuals – in addition to being farmers, they often hold other jobs such as laborers.

3.4.1 Technology

• Similar to M0, M1 and M2, the lowest common denominator will be a meaningful mix of low cost feature
phones; however, more likely to have a growing number of smart or semi-smart phones

• Likely to have a mix of using personal as well as dedicated "business" phones
• May use "merchant wallet" as settlement to buy inputs/supplies

3.4.2 Key function and feature requirements

• May be receiving agricultural subsidies – enabling spend-capabilities from those funds could be a
meaningful value-add

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