COMPANY COMMENT
For MTN, it is a case of try and try again
The company is relaunching mobile money services, which CEO Rob Shuter believes have the ability to replace cash-based transactions
Mobile money has failed in SA before, but there is no reason why MTN can’t make it work the second time around. In 2016, both MTN and Vodacom pulled the mobile money service after it failed to gain enough traction. The reasoning was that SA had a far higher rate of financial inclusion than other African markets where the service had taken off. But MTN CEO Rob Shuter is convinced the company can “make it work”. It is cash-based transactions he’s looking to replace, and there is certainly no shortage of those. A 2017 study by MasterCard showed that the use of physical cash cost consumers R23bn, or 0.52%, of SA’s GDP in 2015. In the same year, as many as 77% of SA adults were banked, yet cash transactions still made up more than 50% of all consumer transactions in the country. As is often the case, the poor are most affected. In SA’s township economies in particular, cash is king — at least for now. MTN mobile money services will be relaunched in the group’s home market in the first qu...
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