--- Wainaina Mungai Made in Kenya Network P. O. Box 72031 - 00200 Nairobi. Kenya. Tel: +254-20-780669 Cell: + 254-722-811171 http://www.madeinkenya.org/
-------Original Message------- From: Wainaina Mungai <[email protected]> Subject: Re: [kictanet] KENYA S ECONOMY HELD BACK BY LACK OF ONLINE PAYMENT AUTHORISA TION SYSTEMS Sent: 11 Jul '07 08:48
Dear Dr. Ndemo
Thanks for the optimistic view and kudos to Treasury for the pilot project. The industry however still believe your Ministry has not done enough to develop a clear framework on e-money and e-commerce. For instance, the government has significant influence in several banks in which Treasury and InfoComm may drive the case for government motivated change. Preferential support for such banks that will be first-movers in setting-up the necessary systems would be justified by the benefits to Kenyans.
So far, the banks use their fear of fraud to explain lack of action. The market for such services has grown enough to justify investment in related security solutions. Apart from security and privacy concerns, the lack of clear guidelines on e-commerce in Kenya seems to trigger cost concerns that a revamped law can address. The cheaper it is for the providers to set-up, the better it may be for the consumers in say, Mandera, to transact. As Vodafone stated, there is need to optimise the M-transactions through better policy & regulation.
Below are some of the points that Vodafone made in their report:
- the amount allowed to be transferred on phones is usually too small to make economic sense - money laundering rules need to be adapted to local conditions - providers of mobile phone financial services need to have some level of access to clearing systems - the customer data held by mobile operators could, for example, offer an alternative to existing forms of regulation to counter money laundering - guarantee the inter-operability of M-transactions to ensure that both providers and clients reap the benefits of synergy - existing structure of retail banking regulation and financial supervision could impose high fixed costs and significant compliance problems
We believe your Ministry can make it much easier for the private sector to innovate.
--- Wainaina Mungai
-------Original Message------- From: [email protected] Subject: Re: [kictanet] KENYA S ECONOMY HELD BACK BY LACK OF ONLINE PAYMENT AUTHORISA TION SYSTEMS Sent: 11 Jul '07 06:47
Dear Lucy/Alice, Treasury is piloting electronic payment system in three Ministries. It is not the Government that should tell Banks and other investors to develop a payment gateway. The Government is fulfilling its role by by providing the policy and regulatory environment. This is the very reason why you should paticipate in Monday's meeting at Safari Park.
Safaricom is doing a great job trail blazing in e-momey. In one of the conferences this year I asked Bankers to embrace technology before it is too late for them. Perharps when they wake up they will all be Mpesharing.
Regards
Bitange Ndemo.
Alice,
The ICT community is ready with the technology for payment gateways, but I dont see any movement on the Kenya Banking Law that needs to be revised to enable this to become a reality.
Perhaps Bw. Ndemo can have a word with his counter-part in finace so they get ontop of this issue. I would hate for TEAMS/eSSAY/Flag etc to become realities and find us as a country not ready to take full advantage, who knows perhaps the East African Integration will happen at about the same time, and we need to be ready to take advantage of a new 120+ million customers(and a whole lot more if Rwanda joins).
So its just not the tourism industry that has a stake in this, we do too, question is how to get organized into a lobby group to make this a reality.
LK
KENYAS ECONOMY HELD BACK BY LACK OF ONLINE PAYMENT AUTHORISATION SYSTEMS _____________________________________________________________________
The Kenyan Government is putting its country forward as a place that is open for business. It is moving to privatise both Telkom Kenya and divest itself of Safaricom. It has moved with considerable speed to put in place its own fibre project TEAMS. But parts of the private sector are having difficulty keeping up with the idea of Kenya having an open, modern economy.
Although there are a couple of new entrants in the countrys banking sector, it is largely dominated by international banks whose managements defer to head office on innovation. This is going to cause the country a problem if it wants to continue to remain competitive. It needs to be able to offer its visitors the ability to pay for flights, hotels and safaris online. If you book a Kenyan hotel, you still cannot pay online for the booking.
Sadly things have only moved on a little since Kenya Airways launched its very successful online payment system using a South African bank. Although many banks can issue credit cards, only a limited number can authorise transactions and they have not shown any interest in setting up the back-end payment authorisation systems required for onl
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