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Mobile Money in Côte d’ivoire: A turnAround story 6
Focus on MTN
Mtn took a different approach, focusing its efforts on consolidating its distribution network.
in early 2012, Mtn decided to outsource the management of its distribution channel to top
image, a field marketing agency with extensive experience in mobile money (having worked
with mobile money providers like safaricom in Kenya). developing stronger recruitment
criteria for agents, managing agent performance more closely, and increasing support for
agent liquidity, all helped Mtn to significantly increase its number of active agents. very
quickly, and without changing the commission structure, agent profitability multiplied four-
fold. in the course of only a few months, agents became more motivated and provided bet-
ter service to customers at the point of sale. With over 95% of its agents active on a 30-day
basis, Mtn Côte d’ivoire now has one of the highest agent activity rates in the world.
“We started to make great progress in Ivory Coast as soon as we managed to put
MTN Mobile Money distribution network in a virtuous circle, by supporting merchants
enough so that they see profitability and growth. Should we put one pillar of the Mobile
Money success in Ivory Coast before the others, it should be distribution as it remains
our most important way to interact with our customers”
Jean-Michel Chanut, CMo Mtn Côte d’ivoire.
Focus on MTN
Mtn took a different approach, focusing its efforts on consolidating its distribution network.
in early 2012, Mtn decided to outsource the management of its distribution channel to top
image, a field marketing agency with extensive experience in mobile money (having worked
with mobile money providers like safaricom in Kenya). developing stronger recruitment
criteria for agents, managing agent performance more closely, and increasing support for
agent liquidity, all helped Mtn to significantly increase its number of active agents. very
quickly, and without changing the commission structure, agent profitability multiplied four-
fold. in the course of only a few months, agents became more motivated and provided bet-
ter service to customers at the point of sale. With over 95% of its agents active on a 30-day
basis, Mtn Côte d’ivoire now has one of the highest agent activity rates in the world.
“We started to make great progress in Ivory Coast as soon as we managed to put
MTN Mobile Money distribution network in a virtuous circle, by supporting merchants
enough so that they see profitability and growth. Should we put one pillar of the Mobile
Money success in Ivory Coast before the others, it should be distribution as it remains
our most important way to interact with our customers”
Jean-Michel Chanut, CMo Mtn Côte d’ivoire.
