Comments on: Understanding what drives profits for agents – M-PESA

By: strumpfhosen

strumpfhosen — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 01:53:49 +0000

Mobile-network competition intensified in August when Kenya’s industry regulator ordered operators to halve the rates they charge each other to transmit calls across networks. That triggered a wave of cuts in call costs by companies to as low as 2 shillings per minute.

Zain Kenya, the country’s second-biggest mobile-network operator owned by Bharti Airtel Ltd., plans to recruit as many as 25,000 agents to help boost the popularity of its Zap mobile money-transfer service, Managing Director Rene Meza said on Sept. 23.

Telkom Kenya Ltd., a joint venture between Kenya’s government and France Telecom SA, plans to launch a mobile money-transfer service known as Orange Money before the end of the year, while Essar Telecom Kenya Ltd., a unit of India’s Essar Group, already has a version of the system that is known as yuCash.

By: Microfranchising |

Microfranchising | — Sat, 12 Feb 2011 19:57:52 +0000

[...] significantly more money and gets most of the franchise systems as the top-up agent. According to CGAP’s M-PESA agent report, an M-PESA mobile money agent can make around 3.2 times more profit than selling airtime alone. A [...]

By: gmeltdown

gmeltdown — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 16:26:25 +0000

Indeed Cash/float management is one of M-PESA agents biggest challenges. However some of the bigger challenges remain outside the control of the agent. See my article in November 2010 on these challenges which include SMS trickery, Service Outages, Employee theft and Fake Currency.

Aside from the Day to day operations that include float/cash management, the listed challenges and others should be properly considered. They are the occasional risks that can wipe away all the profits generate in months. In my analysis, insurance products around these challenges can help a great deal to provide a sense of stability and sustainability for these small businesses.

By: Emerging Markets: MMU Revenue Challenge « FinVentures

Emerging Markets: MMU Revenue Challenge « FinVentures — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 13:14:17 +0000

[...] MPESA Agent Economics (CGAP) [...]

By: Patrick Brennan

Patrick Brennan — Tue, 25 May 2010 17:11:19 +0000

Liquidity management is crucial for an agent to be successful. One would wonder why the cash intermediary or super agent or even M-Pesa would not offer some remedial training in cash/liqudity management. If cash availability becomes on on-going issue with the agent network, people begin to lose confidence in the system and may no longer choose to use M-Pesa or Zain.

The key development need is to have “e-money” as the accepted currency by merchants or lending institutions to accept as paymemts for micro loans since payments for micro loans are the primary number of transactions that occur in these developing markets.

By: George

George — Sat, 08 May 2010 14:34:58 +0000

These i think are initial teething issues. Once an agent has paved a track and done cash flows calculating high season (festive seasons, schools reopening etc)and the lean seasons. it will be less difficult to plan and meet the client requirements.

By: Chebet

Chebet — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 08:24:51 +0000

The twin problem of e-float, both in the rural and urban areas could be solved. I suppose a requirement by Safaricom that agents have two agencies, one in rural and one in urban areas would help. Most agents in urban areas have a problem of too much deposits while rural problem is too much withdrawals causing shortage of e units.If the same agent had a rural counterpart..who has the e-units and no cash to pay, then the two could net out with the help of safaricom. thats my two cents!

By: Autazes and agent banking in Brazil: CGAP’s insights « Postal Financial Inclusion

Fri, 29 Jan 2010 09:45:40 +0000

[...] of CGAP’s three-country research on agent networks. We started last year with an analysis on the agent economics of M-PESA. We then turned our attention to Brazil, and in the next few months we will look at a country in [...]

By: MIchael Uiari

MIchael Uiari — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 10:59:45 +0000

This is exactly the dilemma we encountered when my business partner and I were discussing the business model for m commerce implementation in Papua New Guinea.

An agent needs to build a critical mass of transactions every day to make his agency financially viable.

The solution we arrived at was to enrol savings and loans societies and microfinance institutions as agents initially. Once they had built up a sufficiently large agency business, they could then provide financial assistance to interested persons to start up their own agencies.

How to make an agency viable? Having looked at the M Pesa rates schedule we arrived at the same conclusion – the cost structure in Papua New Guinea did not support a business model that relies on using the M Pesa rates. The solution would have to be a local one. One size does not fit all.

And yes, cash is a problem. We want to eliminate the reliance on cash by consumers. So we saw the use of merchants as central to resolving the issues raised by having to ensure cash is available for cash out services.

By: Quick Hits around African Tech — WhiteAfrican

Quick Hits around African Tech — WhiteAfrican — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 19:04:19 +0000

[...] Understanding what drives Mpesa agents Growing the agent network is one of the most challenging parts of a mobile payment system. [...]