Mobile Money: the operator Wave makes Orange Côte d'Ivoire tremble

Wave Côte d'Ivoire, new Money Mobile sector operator and credit transfer, upsets all standards related to the costs (deposit or withdrawal) of these digital transactions.

The credit purchase option has disappeared from the Wave application

After Senegal, Wave Côte d'Ivoire created an earthquake in Mobile Money services.The showdown is already engaged between the two operators.

The digital financial services market has been turned upside down for a few months by new players such as API and Wave who have met with a dazzling success in particular by their money transfer service.

Wave Côte d'Ivoire which officially launched its activities in April 2021 with 10 million FCFA in initial capital, offers money transfers at only 1%.

With the operator WAVE, it is 0% of costs to the deposit on the personal account, 0% of costs to withdraw from the personal account and 1% of costs from one account to another account.The company even benefits from the right to sell telephone credit in the same way as Orange Côte d'Ivoire.It is even possible to send money to a number that does not have a Wave account.Enough to make Orange Côte d'Ivoire tremble, Mtn Côte d'Ivoire or Moov Africa who dominate the market.

With very low transaction costs, Wave's competitors do not intend to let go.And it just started.Especially in Senegal where "the credit purchase option has disappeared from the Wave application.There remains just the transfer option, "said a surfer.

Orange money money transfer rates have been widely revised downwards.For a withdrawal of 5000 francs, the costs are now 25 francs against 350 before.

A way to align with the low prices of its competitor Wave, who took the opportunity to reaffirm his positioning before announcing that he seized the regulatory authority to arbitrate on the current impossibility of selling telephone creditOrange via their platform.

Wave, which has been launched in partnership with UBA Côte d'Ivoire Bank and already present in 2 African countries, has given itself the mission of making Africa the first cashless continent in the world.This new Money Mobile operator wishes to reinvent the deposit, the transfer of money and the mobile payments to Côte d'Ivoire.

Diversified Wave Services

Wave services can be used to create and access an electronic wallet on your mobile phone.The service is available from the Wave application.Registration for a WAVE mobile portfolio does not create a check account or any other form of bank account.Activating the Wave Credited in Electronic Mint allows you to carry out the following operations:

- transfer of money to any other person via the mobile phone;

- deposit/withdrawal of cash from any Wave sub-distributor;

-Reception of transfer of international mobile funds from diasporas communities based in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada and the European Economic Area.

Wave, the ambition of young students

The co-founders of Wave, Drew Durbin (Managing Director) and Lincoln Quirk (Product Director) met in the first year of university where they were Neighbors of the level.Their love for the development of simple products with high social impact quickly made friends.They are supported by renowned investors such as: Combinator, Funder Fund, Partech.

The opportunity to fall in the USSD lock

Mobile operators, like Orange Côte d'Ivoire, built the success of the mobile money on a series of differentiating active ingredients.For a long time, they had exclusive access to these resources.The impossibility for other players to reply or acquire them prohibited them from entering the Money Mobile Market, or significantly reduced their chances of success.This is the case of USSD interfaces which constituted robust barriers at the entrance.

The emergence of innovative technologies and the evolution of market conditions as well as certain regulations have largely weakened the defensive nature of these assets.

The use of mobile Internet is generally limited in the Mobile Money favorite markets.Most of the mobile money transactions are still done via the USSD canal (see box) in most markets.Historically, telephone operators

Mobile have monopolistic access to this channel.They can concede their use to third parties while retaining control and generally fixing access prices.

In addition, an actor who wishes to make available to his customers an USSD application must establish partnerships with each telecommunications operator so that his customers can access it, regardless of their mobile network.This monopoly is today weakened.In Côte d'Ivoire as in Kenya, several banks were able to obtain a license from MVNO (Mobile Virtual Network Operator).allowed the bank to have its own USSD channel.This is the case of Ecobank with its YUP application.

In Senegal, in April 2018, the regulatory authority for telecommunications and posts released access to USSD codes, thus offering added service providers an agnostic access (any operator) to the USSD canal.

Banking: when banks imitate the mobile money distribution model

The network of agents is a major asset in the operational model of mobile money.It also offers a decisive competitive advantage to the mobile money services: the physical proximity of agents, the flexibility of their schedules or even the limited waiting time in these points of service make mobile money significantly more attractive than traditional financial services.

Under this model, called Agent Banking, Cooperative Bank had deployed more than 12,000 agents in Kenya in early 2017. Equity Bank claimed more than 25,000 at the same time.In West Africa, Société Générale has recruited 8,000 agents in two years, in Ghana

Mowali to facilitate financial flows between end users

The Orange and MTN groups announced at the end of 2018 the creation of a joint company called Mowali which will allow the interoperability of payments throughout the African continent.

Mowali is not competing with Mobile Money operators.Like a visa/mastercard which is not a competitor of banks, Mowali only "makes financial flows between end users (customers, merchants, etc.), whatever the service providers and service providers and service providers andcountries of origin and destination of flows.

Then, the operators remain responsible and masters of their positioning and differentiation: it is their responsibility to define service offers, customer experience and attractive prices in order to conquer new users and encourage use.