A report by the World Bank (April 2014) had this to say:

There are five “corridors” – a country to country transfer – with an average fee higher than 20%, all of them in Africa. Migrant workers in South Africa, for example, paid an average of just over 23% in fees on the money they sent to Botswana in 2012, making it the most expensive remittance channel in the world.Sending money from South Africa to Mozambique was the second most costly channel, with an average 22% fee imposed on transfers.

“Forcing migrant workers to pay as much as $50 to send $200 is wrong, especially when they are sending salaries they have earned in the hope of supporting their families back home,”

An earlier report by ODI (April 2014) raised the same point. 

Linking this back to Kenya - there are systemic hurdles denying entry into the remittance market innovative, cost effective competitors and this, in concert with existing market dominance forces, keep costs high. 

If Lipisha/Bitpesa/CBK/Safaricom case taught us something, it is that competition on these high stake sectors are not that fair or transparent. 


---
Moses Karanja | @Mose_Karanja | PGP: 0x1529552F




On Dec 16, 2015, at 3:34 PM, kictanet-request@lists.kictanet.or.ke wrote:

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Today's Topics:

  1. Re: Public Notice by CBK on Virtual Currencies (meshack emakunat)
  2. Re: Public Notice by CBK on Virtual Currencies (Ali Hussein)

From: meshack emakunat <memakunat@yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: [kictanet] Public Notice by CBK on Virtual Currencies
Date: December 16, 2015 at 1:58:28 PM EAT
To: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke>
Reply-To: meshack emakunat <memakunat@yahoo.com>


Hello All

did you know that migrant Africans are charged a whole 12% or more on remittances back home from developed countries and that these charges are 2wice the global rate.  and that 66% of the global (to africa) remittances are from MTOs such as Moneygram and Western union

REGARDS

MESHACK



On Wednesday, December 16, 2015 10:52 AM, Ali Hussein via kictanet <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> wrote:


Josiah

Umeongea kama wazee kumi! (spoken like 10 wise men!)

Ali Hussein
Principal
Hussein & Associates
+254 0713 601113 / 0770906375

Twitter: @AliHKassim
Skype: abu-jomo
Blog: www.alyhussein.com

"Discovery consists in seeing what everyone else has seen and thinking what no one else has thought".  ~ Albert Szent-Györgyi

Sent from my iPad

On 15 Dec 2015, at 1:24 PM, Josiah Mugambi via kictanet <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> wrote:

BitPesa requires proof of identity before use. I found it quite lengthy and a tad tedious while signing up sometimes back. That somewhat takes care of KYC procedures though.
I think CBK are obligated to make this position as a caveat emptor. An idea for them might be to use this case with BitPesa as a pilot with the view of coming up with regulations. Especially as cryptocurrencies are not going away any time soon.
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From: Ali Hussein <ali@hussein.me.ke>
Subject: Re: [kictanet] Public Notice by CBK on Virtual Currencies
Date: December 16, 2015 at 3:27:13 PM EAT
To: meshack emakunat <memakunat@yahoo.com>
Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke>


Meshack

You have brought Ina whole new dimension to this discussion.

Your assertions by the way are true. That is however changing very fast with new players surfacing very fast. This is a $580 billion global money movement space with about $50 billion in fees/and or forex spreads. You can now see why bitcoins can upset the apple cart..but that's a discussion for another day.

To Mwendwa's question/comment about bitcoins and Imperial Bank. Not sure this is an apples for apples comparison. Bitcoins are a currency and Imperial Bank issue is mainly one of depositors potentially loosing money because of unscrupulous management and inability of Central Bank to timely regulate. 

Ali Hussein
Principal
Hussein & Associates
+254 0713 601113 / 0770906375

Twitter: @AliHKassim
Skype: abu-jomo

Blog: www.alyhussein.com

"Discovery consists in seeing what everyone else has seen and thinking what no one else has thought".  ~ Albert Szent-Györgyi

Sent from my iPad

On 16 Dec 2015, at 1:58 PM, meshack emakunat <memakunat@yahoo.com> wrote:

Hello All

did you know that migrant Africans are charged a whole 12% or more on remittances back home from developed countries and that these charges are 2wice the global rate.  and that 66% of the global (to africa) remittances are from MTOs such as Moneygram and Western union

REGARDS

MESHACK



On Wednesday, December 16, 2015 10:52 AM, Ali Hussein via kictanet <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> wrote:


Josiah

Umeongea kama wazee kumi! (spoken like 10 wise men!)

Ali Hussein
Principal
Hussein & Associates
+254 0713 601113 / 0770906375

Twitter: @AliHKassim
Skype: abu-jomo
Blog: www.alyhussein.com

"Discovery consists in seeing what everyone else has seen and thinking what no one else has thought".  ~ Albert Szent-Györgyi

Sent from my iPad

On 15 Dec 2015, at 1:24 PM, Josiah Mugambi via kictanet <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> wrote:

BitPesa requires proof of identity before use. I found it quite lengthy and a tad tedious while signing up sometimes back. That somewhat takes care of KYC procedures though.
I think CBK are obligated to make this position as a caveat emptor. An idea for them might be to use this case with BitPesa as a pilot with the view of coming up with regulations. Especially as cryptocurrencies are not going away any time soon.
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KICTANetiquette : Adhere to the same standards of acceptable behaviors online that you follow in real life: respect people's times and bandwidth, share knowledge, don't flame or abuse or personalize, respect privacy, do not spam, do not market your wares or qualifications.



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