Hi All,
Exactly what is the point of this discussion, as it seems someone wants to say something but is not getting to the point.
What is open, are we suggesting that equity open up its branches and allows me to sell bananas in their banking halls because they have the largest client base or is it that the staffs ethnicity needs to show national diversity or that they should open up their banking software to all and sundry to connect and do as they wish with the client data, exactly what does Equity want Safaricom to make open yet they have mKesho together?
When people start making personal attacks on others for their contributions it suggests a deeper issue than what the subject indicates and it might be better for them to put their cards on the table.
Safaricom is a industry player who partner
with a certain nondescript bank called CBA to provide the really kick ass solution, which makes me wonder if what Equity means by Safaricom being open is in which bank holds the deposits.
So from where I am sitting the discussion here has nothing to do with an API, which if you are innovative you do not need, but more a taff war for the deposits that Safaricom holds on mPesa, MShwari and soon mBima, mSoko, mMali, mTV, mVituVingiSana.
Regards
PS. Let us pick a fight we can win like making sure PostaPesa is open
Robert Yawe
KAY System Technologies Ltd
Phoenix House, 6th Floor
P O Box 55806 Nairobi, 00200
Kenya
Tel: +254722511225, +254202010696
From: James Mbugua <jgmbugua@gmail.com>
To: robertyawe@yahoo.co.uk
Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke>
Sent: Tuesday, 6 August 2013, 13:50
Subject: Re: [kictanet] Equity says M-Pesa lines should be open
Bernard
Far be it from me to suggest that your business with Safaricom clouds your outlook, but I think as a software developer you understand what we mean.
Why do you have to present it to Safaricom for them to like it and then give greenlight further development?
Even Microsft Windows is not that closed. At least there are specs for third party software development.
THe problem here is that Safaricom cannot be both the owner of the platform and also the gate keeper of innovations that may run on it. We have not stopped them from earning money by coming up with standard licensing fees, but it should not be up to them to decide which idea they like and therefore should run on a payment system.
This is the same problem AT&T had because they simultaneously owned Bell Labs which churned out landmark software technologies, they could decide that a technology that seemed a threat would not run on their network yet they were virtually a monopoly the way M-PESA by market positioning is a virtual monopoly.
There are thousands of programmers who could come up with software or games that could seamlessly integrate M-PESA as a payment platform for their services without having to go through an approval process where SafCom technical people are the judges and jury particularly given the integrity issues that have long been raised of these SafCom IT guys when it comes to dealing with developers.
But even then, there is the real national security threat of saying that 35% of our GDP passes through M-PESA when there is no credible redundancy.
What are we saying? That if MPESA is out of a week the economy stagnates? Potential systemic risks such as banking systems heavily exposed to one economic sector are heavily discouraged and neither should we say our national transactions are 35% exposed to one payment system and be happy about it.
This is nothing against the folks at SafCom, it is just what makes sense for any right-thinking citizen.
Regards
James
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