I am working in Accra, Ghana right now, and will be here for 5 days. JUMO works with MTN Ghana on a financial services product called QWIKLOAN, which is in my opinion one of the greatest mobile money products ever launched. Yah I said it M-Shwari… But the reason QWIKLOAN has been a massive success is that MTN Ghana put in the hard work building the mobile money ecosystem. After the introduction of the E-Money issuers guidelines by the Bank of Ghana in July 2015, MTN Ghana management put together a five-tier plan to drive customer activity in their expanding ecosystem. They realized that growth in accounts didn’t mean the success of the ecosystem; rather, that retention and activity would be the key metrics that decided long-term revenue. Below are their growth and the five-tier plan from the GSMA report.
- Education: An early and continued focus on ensuring every customer was shown how to conduct a transaction when registering and then conducted one on their own in the presence of an agent.
- Customer and agent incentives: Customers were monitored and incentivised to continue transacting via mobile money with frequent public holiday promotions (e.g. over Independence Day). For agents, incentives tied to customer activity enticed them to encourage customer transactions. For example, agents received remuneration for the second and third transaction a new customer made within their first month of registering.
- Increased engagement: Door-to-door information sharing and use of community activators who spread awareness of the potential benefits of mobile money.
- Immediate mobile money registration: When a customer registers as an MTN Ghana customer, they are instantaneously registered as an MTN Ghana mobile money customer.
- Increased investment: For example, proactive investment in agent visibility, training and increasing the number of agents in the field. Building partnerships with banks, merchants (e.g. satellite TV and utility providers), small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and microfinance institutions (MFIs) was also critical to MTN Ghana’s success, and would not have been possible without CEO and senior-level buy-in and support. Additionally, customers are responding to the opportunity to earn interest by keeping more funds in their mobile money accounts and performing more digital transactions.
MTN Ghana haven’t pulled back on this strategy, and I can see this plan emphasised across their office in posters and the interactions I have there. I’m proud to be partnered with a company that built an ecosystem that has changed millions of peoples lives.