Page 6 - GSMA_Congo_Case_Study_ARTWORK
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ENABLING MOBILE MONEY POLICIES IN THE DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO
In December 2010 the Governor of the BCC, Jean-Claude Masangu Mulongo, attended a workshop in Nairobi hosted by the GSMA and
4
Citi where he heard directly from the Kenyans and Tanzanians regulators about the take-o of mobile money in their countries and the
5
enabling role that the central banks had played, and he could see M-PESA in action. At that time he realised the potential of the mobile
to bridge the financial access gap in the DRC.
The financial inclusion rate in the DRC is very low, and building the payment and banking networks in a country with this
extension and infrastructure gap is not feasible using the traditional brick-and-mortar approach. But, today, mobile technology
gives us the opportunity to connect people and financial providers at a fraction of that cost. It is our duty to create an enabling
regulatory framework for these new services, which will also help to de-dollarize the economy after years of economic and
political instability. We must do it now.
Jean-Claude Masangu Mulongo
Governor, Banque Centrale du Congo
January 2011
The BCC, which has the mandate to administrate and oversee the payment systems in the country, didn’t have the legal bases to
license non-bank service providers like MNOs. To let them in the market, the regulator needed to create a new legal window. Governor
Mulongo was key in driving the policymaking process through. To realise his vision, he established a Mobile Banking Task Force
Committee (CMTF) in March 2011 to develop an action plan for an enabling mobile money regulatory environment. The task force
6
included all relevant representatives from the financial and telecommunications sector, including the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of
Post, Telephones and Telecommunications, the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority, the Congolese Banking Association, MNOs,
banks, and non-bank financial institutions, such as cooperatives and microfinance institutions (MFIs). The Governor gave the task-force
10 months to reach conclusions and present a new regulation.
Under the leadership of two central bank oicers – Willy Mudiay Mpinga (Director, Financial Intermediaries Supervision Department,
and President of the CMTF) and Valentine Claude Ramazani (Deputy Director, Financial Intermediaries Supervision Department,
and Secretary of the CMTF) – and co-chaired by representatives of both MNOs and banks, the CMTF was not only responsible for
determining how mobile money should be regulated, but also for projecting the impact of regulation on market uptake and customer
adoption of mobile money services.
The task force met twice a month to design a legal framework for mobile money, and, with support from the GSMA and the Alliance
for Financial Inclusion (AFI), some of its members visited Kenya and the Philippines (markets were mobile money services were
already scaling up) and participated in technical workshops with regulators and providers from other countries to learn directly what
policies others had implemented to enable digital financial inclusion. In little time they looked at other models and brought back the
lessons they learned to the CMTF where they all participants contributed to assess the dierent regulatory and technology options
and craft solutions that were suitable for the DRC. The visit to the Philippines was particularly important because the delegation could
experience the model adopted by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas to allow an MNO, Globe Telecom, to set up a subsidiary to provide its
mobile money service G-Cash.
Only three months after its creation the CMTF members had already circulated for comments the first version of the draft regulation to
local stakeholders and to the main development partners (AFI, CGAP, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the GSMA). How can I
say that the CMFT circulated dierent versions one after the other? It was impressive how reactive they were to incorporate comments
and redraft.
Creating a task force with all relevant stakeholders was really important because it helped us to assess dierent scenarios, to
get a common understanding of the opportunities and challenges, and at the end to find the best solution for the benefit of
the entire ecosystem. The central bank released one consistent set of rules across all players in the mobile money industry, and
having set this rules with the collaboration of the providers made the process more transparent. More importantly, the regulation
was agreed upon by all role players in advance, which makes it easier to enforce.
Valentin Claude Ramazani
Secretary, Mobile Banking Task Force Committee
Banque Centrale du Congo
4. Governor Mulongo retired in 2013. The current BCC Governor is Deogratias Mutombo Mwana Nyembo
5. “Mobile Money Policy Forum: Partnerships for Financial Inclusion in Africa, ” Nairobi, 1-2 December 2010, http://www.citibank.com/transactionservices/home/about_us/press_room/2010/2010_1202.jsp
6. Banque Centrale du Congo, “Ordre de service n. 035/11 du 03 mars (2011) créant le Comité Mobile Banking Task Force (CMTF).”
6
In December 2010 the Governor of the BCC, Jean-Claude Masangu Mulongo, attended a workshop in Nairobi hosted by the GSMA and
4
Citi where he heard directly from the Kenyans and Tanzanians regulators about the take-o of mobile money in their countries and the
5
enabling role that the central banks had played, and he could see M-PESA in action. At that time he realised the potential of the mobile
to bridge the financial access gap in the DRC.
The financial inclusion rate in the DRC is very low, and building the payment and banking networks in a country with this
extension and infrastructure gap is not feasible using the traditional brick-and-mortar approach. But, today, mobile technology
gives us the opportunity to connect people and financial providers at a fraction of that cost. It is our duty to create an enabling
regulatory framework for these new services, which will also help to de-dollarize the economy after years of economic and
political instability. We must do it now.
Jean-Claude Masangu Mulongo
Governor, Banque Centrale du Congo
January 2011
The BCC, which has the mandate to administrate and oversee the payment systems in the country, didn’t have the legal bases to
license non-bank service providers like MNOs. To let them in the market, the regulator needed to create a new legal window. Governor
Mulongo was key in driving the policymaking process through. To realise his vision, he established a Mobile Banking Task Force
Committee (CMTF) in March 2011 to develop an action plan for an enabling mobile money regulatory environment. The task force
6
included all relevant representatives from the financial and telecommunications sector, including the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of
Post, Telephones and Telecommunications, the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority, the Congolese Banking Association, MNOs,
banks, and non-bank financial institutions, such as cooperatives and microfinance institutions (MFIs). The Governor gave the task-force
10 months to reach conclusions and present a new regulation.
Under the leadership of two central bank oicers – Willy Mudiay Mpinga (Director, Financial Intermediaries Supervision Department,
and President of the CMTF) and Valentine Claude Ramazani (Deputy Director, Financial Intermediaries Supervision Department,
and Secretary of the CMTF) – and co-chaired by representatives of both MNOs and banks, the CMTF was not only responsible for
determining how mobile money should be regulated, but also for projecting the impact of regulation on market uptake and customer
adoption of mobile money services.
The task force met twice a month to design a legal framework for mobile money, and, with support from the GSMA and the Alliance
for Financial Inclusion (AFI), some of its members visited Kenya and the Philippines (markets were mobile money services were
already scaling up) and participated in technical workshops with regulators and providers from other countries to learn directly what
policies others had implemented to enable digital financial inclusion. In little time they looked at other models and brought back the
lessons they learned to the CMTF where they all participants contributed to assess the dierent regulatory and technology options
and craft solutions that were suitable for the DRC. The visit to the Philippines was particularly important because the delegation could
experience the model adopted by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas to allow an MNO, Globe Telecom, to set up a subsidiary to provide its
mobile money service G-Cash.
Only three months after its creation the CMTF members had already circulated for comments the first version of the draft regulation to
local stakeholders and to the main development partners (AFI, CGAP, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the GSMA). How can I
say that the CMFT circulated dierent versions one after the other? It was impressive how reactive they were to incorporate comments
and redraft.
Creating a task force with all relevant stakeholders was really important because it helped us to assess dierent scenarios, to
get a common understanding of the opportunities and challenges, and at the end to find the best solution for the benefit of
the entire ecosystem. The central bank released one consistent set of rules across all players in the mobile money industry, and
having set this rules with the collaboration of the providers made the process more transparent. More importantly, the regulation
was agreed upon by all role players in advance, which makes it easier to enforce.
Valentin Claude Ramazani
Secretary, Mobile Banking Task Force Committee
Banque Centrale du Congo
4. Governor Mulongo retired in 2013. The current BCC Governor is Deogratias Mutombo Mwana Nyembo
5. “Mobile Money Policy Forum: Partnerships for Financial Inclusion in Africa, ” Nairobi, 1-2 December 2010, http://www.citibank.com/transactionservices/home/about_us/press_room/2010/2010_1202.jsp
6. Banque Centrale du Congo, “Ordre de service n. 035/11 du 03 mars (2011) créant le Comité Mobile Banking Task Force (CMTF).”
6
