Page 211 - ITU-T Focus Group Digital Financial Services – Technology, innovation and competition

ITU-T Focus Group Digital Financial Services
Technology, Innovation and Competition

for access to the API; continuous requirements to change the way their interface or app uses the API; refusal
to accept the integration; or delay in allowing the interface or app to be used. Integrations and partnerships,
however, may not necessarily be forged with every provider as this may be a business decision. As such, the
existence of an API does not obviate the need to establish the appropriate commercial arrangements to
accompany its use.

11.3 Country examples

Kenya

Kenyan-based remittance provider Bitpesa sued Safaricom over the latter’s refusal to provide Bitpesa access
to its M-PESA DFS platform as a payment option for Kenyan-based Bitcoin buyers. The court refused the
205
request to force Safaricom to provide the access. There is still some controversy as to whether this refusal
206
was a competition issue or a business decision based on compliance concerns. Safaricom cited the uncertain
regulatory environment in Kenya around Bitcoin as the reason for blocking Bitpesa from its platform. Bitpesa’s
contention, however, was that the refusal was a competition issue: that its international remittance business
competed with that of the non-Bitcoin remittance business of Safaricom.
Uganda

MTN Uganda is providing APIs to e-commerce sites to use the MTN Money wallet as a payment instrument on
the web. It is, however, reportedly restricting the number of those can integrate with the API to five.

205 CoinDesk (2015) Kenyan Court Upholds Bid to Keep Bitcoin Startup Off M-PESA, available from https:// goo. gl/ f27H23
206 Bitcoin is a distributed cryptocurrency with no central issuer. Bitpesa enables the exchange of bitcoin for Kenyan Shillings, and
allows users in Kenya, Nigeria, Uganda and Tanzania to send fiat funds to popular DFS wallets. It also has a corridor to China. See
www. bitpesa. co

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