MarketsandMarkets also provides multi-client reports, company profiles, databases, and custom research services. “Mobile money has become part of people’s everyday lives because they don’t need to carry cash. Even those who were formally unbanked have mobile money accounts with a service provider of their choice because it’s cheap,” the Daily Monitor quoted him as saying. “In telecom we are trying to increase affordability and things like mobile money transfer revolutionised money transaction so when you increase tax, there is a contradiction,” she told Uganda’s state-owned New Vision newspaper. This slows down registrations, especially in the rural areas; and limit on transactions.
Finance Minister Maria Kiwanuka said she also planned to raise $16.5m (£10.6m) by imposing a levy on incoming international phone calls. Ms Kiwanuka had to come up with ways to plug a $214m hole in the annual budget after donors cut aid over accusations of corruption. Perhaps government should consider using its own purchasing power to radically promote cashless payments as a first step. Ghana, as a developing country in West Africa has taken the initiative to introduce a system where businesses can be done without using physical cash.
Avatar Technologies Ltd is a specialized electronic fiscal solutions provider for governments and taxpayers. Our world-class technologies and solutions have been designed specifically to meet the needs and requirements of tax authorities in emerging and developing countries. Kifiya Financial Technology Plc is working with ethio-telecom to introduce an electronic airtime distribution service. This will be designed to be a cheaper replacement of the existing scratch cards used for prepaid mobile customers.
Why digital tax is good for South Africa
With some of the platform you can send and receive money safely, pay your utility bills, TV subscription, buy airtime, pay for goods and services and buy a life insurance. The Mobile Money solution is based on Banking Industry security standards. Accounts are password protected, data is encrypted, user authentication is required, authorization is profile specific, and account holder confidentiality is assured. With these platforms, mobile money wallet opening is made to conform to Know Your Customer requirements. MOBILE and internet-based transactions have for the first time surpassed card payments after registering a 28,3% growth in the month of May as more account holders turn to the convenience of mobile banking. Looking ahead we need clear policies as a country in place that would allow the operators to follow a structured advance towards achieving the full benefits of a cashless economy.
Category: Digital Payments
He said a policy that prescribes a structured approach is a step in the right direction to a well thought-out, properly sequenced cashless economy implementation. Many banks moved towards internet and mobile banking after government said banks should, effective January this year, not levy fees on deposits of less than US$800 and give 4% interest on deposits of at least US$1 000 held over 30 days. With a clear policy in place, this initiative can be link to the rural banks in the country and it will become a nationwide project like M-PESA from Kenya. These platforms provide cash management solution which offers flexibility, total security and convenience of accessing your money on your mobile phone wherever you are. It offers a fledged bank account on your mobile phone which allows you to easily and safely manage your cash in real time.
Mobile money transfers are extremely common in Uganda as many people, especially in rural areas, do not have bank accounts. The mobile phones, which are seen as the device for the upper crust is changed and the number of mobile phones is expected to surpass the world’s population in the coming years. The Ubiquity of mobile phones and the major chunk of people who have no formal access to banks are the key drivers for the Mobile Money market. Mobile Money will offer a rewarding opportunity in terms of revenue for the people in its ecosystem both in the near future and over the long term. While talking about its ecosystem, it constitutes of many industries such as mobile network operators, banks and financial institutions, payment processors, mobile money platform providers, handset manufacturers, etc. because of its fragmented nature of the market.
Gilfillan said that the new digital tax will definitely have a “massive” positive effect on the local economy. He said that many people may be using Netflix or Hulu at the expense of local operations like DStv. The money flows out of the country without any benefits for local artists or content products, said Gilfillan, adding that no royalties are flowing back into the country. Legal expert Graham Gilfillan welcomed the South African government’s new electronic services regulations which will introduce 14% VAT on digital products and services from 1 April 2014. The regulations have been published by finance minister Pravin Gordhan for comment, and follow the proposals he made in his 2013 budget speech to impose VAT on foreign businesses who “sell e-books, music and other digital goods and services”. The only way to implement this realistically, is to have it done automatically by banks when you make purchases, or require that services such as Steam comply with Vat regulation, which means they’d need to be registered VAT vendors.
Mobile Money Market to Reach $278.9 Billion by 2018
It will make it easier to retrieve evidence of document submission or payment remittance. By the end of 2012, there were over 1 billion mobile banking users, conducting 47 billion transactions annually and generating over US$600 billion worth of financial transactions in the world, according to Ericsson survey. The use of this platform formalising informal transactions; transparency helps combat crime and corruption; record keeping reduces room for tax avoidance ; increased service options for consumers – accessibility 24/7. The net effect on business and economic growth through e-commerce, promote and enhanced productivity.
‘This tells us we must have a singular focus on educating people about the full benefits of a cashless economy. The benefits afforded them as well as the benefits afforded the country as a whole. This is something that must be done by all stakeholders because as a country we all benefit,’ he added.
Going forward, the RBZ said its goal is to ensure payment systems are available without interruption, meet all users’ needs, and operate at minimum risk and reasonable cost. The level of detail contained on the electronic returns is unnecessary and superfluous, and the shift assumes that taxpayers are technically equipped to navigate through the returns. But the most challenging bit is the amount of time firms will take to complete these returns due to the excessive information that the KRA is asking for.
Notwithstanding the system’s imperfections, we should not throw the baby out with the bath water. Finally, he stated that Mobile Operators will facilitate each of these transactions directly or indirectly. Its lower costs make it profitable to serve poorer clients and no physical outlets make it possible to serve more remote clients. According to Gilfillan, foreign online shopping has been hurting South Africa, and it is not only about tax.
Bank of Ghana, the regulator of the banking industry through Ghana Interbank, Payment and Settlement Systems introduced e-zwich card, where Ghanaians will feel comfortable in using the card to transact businesses rather than physical cash. Abdurahim Ahmed, the corporate communications director at ethio telecom, did not comment to Fortune, despite repeated efforts. Ethio-telecom has so far been availing scratch cards worth five Birr, 10 Br, 15Br, 25Br, 50 Br and 100Br only. The new service will, however, provide customers with the option of recharging any amount. Fortune has learnt that Kifya has recruited new staff from its branches and has been offering them training at its headquarters at the Finfinnee Building, around Meskel Square. The agreement with ethio-telecom is expected to evolve into a scheme in which private vendors will lease airtime from them to distribute to customers.
One area which stakeholders in the financial sector and for that matter the central bank have not done well at all is the Mobile Money Payment platform. Kenya is perfect example where over 80% of the Kenyans use M-PESA mobile money transfer. Many of the Kenyans are transacting businesses through this platform rather than using physical cash. Mobile Payments are defined as chain of payments that are initiated using mobile handsets and other devices, either to directly purchase or to authorize payment for goods and services.
He explained that money from digital purchases often leave the country without any benefit to South Africa’s economy. Phiona Wall, communications manager at mobile phone company Airtel Uganda, said she felt there were contradictions in the budget. Korea’s PKI has underpinned the implementation of e-Government systems and services. These include citizen oriented services such as national ID system, taxation; Spatial services such as land information system, underground facility management , property registration and urban planning among others. MarketsandMarkets is a global market research and consulting company based in the U.S. We publish strategically analyzed market research reports and serve as a business intelligence partner to Fortune 500 companies across the world.
This week Kenya kicked off the process of setting up a National Public Key Infrastructure . Many may ask what PKI is, it a system of digital certificates, certificate authorities and other registration authorities that verify and authenticate the validity of each party involved in an electronic transaction. This will create a secure online transaction environment and set up an online identity & verification system. A National PKI will enable and foster the development of various applications incorporating digital signatures and a trusted environment over open networks. Piracy is driven more by ease of access than cost, and if everything’s blocked, it makes sense that media consumers will look elsewhere for that content.
Mobile Payments has the potential to serve these unbanked and underserved segments of the society. It is an economy without cash, it uses digital money instead, and transactions are made easily. In some years back, cashless society based mainly on barter, gift economics and debt, and then evolved to the use of money. In some countries like United State of America , majority of the people use cards while little as 29% are still with cash. In Australian cash use still at 64% while in UK, cash use is projected to drop to 45% by 2018.