Page 339 - The Digital Financial Services (DFS) Ecosystem

ITU-T Focus Group Digital Financial Services
Ecosystem

Figure 3 – Mobile money usage and registrations in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Bangladesh and Pakistan

Source: InterMedia 2016, Available at: http:// finclusion. org/ uploads/ file/ 2016%20 InterMedia%20 FII%20 CONVERTING%20 TO%20 USE%20
poster. pdf
Interestingly, 57 per cent of registered mobile money users in Uganda, and 54 per cent of registered mobile
money users in Kenya reported they preferred to “use OTC via an agent”. It is important to note that these are
preferences, and that it is still unclear how strongly they translate into action: meaning, while they might prefer
OTC, they actually use their m-wallets, because OTC transactions are discouraged by providers in Uganda, and
most providers in Tanzania.
Comparing the above figure to the market segmentation of account adoption, we can say that innovators and
early adopters in all countries are likely to be already using mobile money. In East Africa, they are likely all
registered for mobile money accounts, and in Bangladesh there may be a mix of registered and unregistered
mobile money users, while in Pakistan they are still largely unregistered mobile money users transacting OTC.

Examining client demand for the innovators and early adopters in these markets (the first 15-20 per cent of
the market to start using the service), in all leading markets, apart from Pakistan, it appears this demographic
is mostly registered mobile money users. The InterMedia 2014 Bangladesh Report notes registered mobile
money users were young, male, urban, and banked, which is a similar demographic to innovators and early
adopters of M-PESA in Kenya.

The reasons why Pakistan’s innovators and early adopters have not registered for accounts are unclear, but
probably have to do with a lack of focus on account registration, coupled with aggressive marketing of the
OTC model; whereas in Bangladesh, providers do not market the OTC model, as it is informal. We expect the
numbers to change in Pakistan, as a result of the large biometric SIM registration drives that have happened
since InterMedia’s data was collected.

The early and late majority are much more complicated and important, given that they are a much larger
segment. The early and late majority are also mostly registered in East Africa; however, they likely account for
the lion’s share of unregistered usage there, too. In Kenya, there are 21 per cent of adults who are still not using
the system, of which many would be early and late majority. In South Asia, early and late majority probably
account for a small portion of the registered mobile money users. The majority of early and late majority in

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