Future-Proofing Mobile Money Agents: Three Trends to Watch
Increasing financial inclusion by supporting agents with Waynbo
Co-authored by Hugo Pacheco and Kanika Kumar
The power of mobile money agents
Around the world, mobile money agents are the backbone of financial inclusion. By extending access to places and people who are otherwise disconnected from formal financial institutions, mobile money agents are the key to bringing unbanked users online.
One market where this is especially powerful is Nigeria. In 2021, Nigeria’s banked population increased by 15.6 percentage points, a record high, largely thanks to the reach of mobile money agents. Additionally, the number of registered mobile money agent outlets per one thousand square metres in Nigeria has increased by over 380% in the past year.
Yet, we’ve also seen diminishing income earned by these agents due to price wars and the slow but gradual shift to self-service digital finance.
How to future-proof mobile money agents
Because it’s hard to imagine a world without mobile money agents, it’s crucial to start future-proofing them to ensure that they continue to support the goals of financial inclusion.
At Waynbo and IDEO Last Mile Money, we’re excited by the potential to use this as a moment to equalise the power between agents and corporations and support Waynbo in its efforts to build a democratic agency banking solution. We like to think of this as the “Open Banking Solution for Agents,” Waynbo’s offering that empowers agents, helps them tap into additional opportunities for income, and more conveniently manage their money.
Hugo Pacheco, Waynbo’s Chief of Product & Sales, and his co-founders are betting on three key strategies to help mobile money agents thrive in a changing world:
- Designing a lucrative and desirable on-ramp for agents
- Democratising access for both agents and providers
- Building a product stack that caters to a digitally-connected majority, but also brings along last-mile agents
1. Designing a lucrative and desirable on-ramp for agents
One challenge that agents face today has to do with working with multiple banking platforms since the user experience isn’t designed for this. This can create challenges with cash flow since some dedicated agent networks have required agents to register their account with a specific device. Historically, agents have had to juggle multiple accounts, SIM cards, and even devices in order to manage multiple business streams and money accounts.
Working with non-dedicated agents in Africa, many of the agents on Waynbo’s platform manage more than one mobile money or banking service at a time. In the process, Waynbo has learned that building a “super app” for agents, which aggregates all their services into one place, can help agents optimise their operations and improve their productivity.
For instance, creating one cash box helps agents manage liquidity at the agency business level instead of each individual account. Additionally, with a record-keeping feature that sits as an overlay across the app, the agent is able to get a holistic view of their business, instead of having to manually tally across multiple apps or accounts. Having one login through Waynbo eases access, allowing agents to manage and expand their businesses.
Often, agents are an afterthought when it comes to designing a network. For example, what if we thought of the agent as the user, not just the delivery channel (eg: telecom, fintech, banks)? We might end up with a platform that’s more desirable and usable for mobile money agents, helping them run their businesses more efficiently.
Ultimately, as we think about the future of agents, we see the need to think of them as key users — and design agent management platforms with their unique needs in mind.
2. Democratise access for both agents and providers
We are in a moment of dramatic and big changes with the rise of the digital economy. The tension that all providers wrestle with is striking the right balance between acquiring customers and creating enough value for the agents. As peer-to-peer and super apps offer increasingly subsidised (and often venture-backed) CICO/transfer fees in their race to acquire and retain users at scale, there is less revenue to pay commission to the agents powering the system.
Today, commissions for agents are on a downward trajectory. This is similar to a marketplace like ride-sharing, where companies like Uber and Lyft compete on rider discounts, while concurrently competing on driver earning potential. Yet, it’s necessary to recognise that cash is still used broadly — and will likely remain for the foreseeable future. In such a world, agents remain a key channel of connection and communication with the end users. From this perspective, power and value can be shared by agents and providers more equally.
Waynbo is designing an agent-first solution with an open platform where any provider can plug in and instantly access a network of independent agents. Through this, Waynbo is able to offer agents over 170 different opportunities from providers such as banks, mobile money operators, governments, e-commerce, agriculture, health companies, and many others.
We especially admire how Waynbo has been able to shift the power dynamic between providers and agents, encouraging providers to design competitive new incentives.
3. Building a product stack that caters to a digitally-connected majority, but also brings along last-mile agents
Often, mobile money agents operate in low-resource settings and may be working with unpredictable and limited income. They may have access to a smartphone, or a feature phone, or be working with limited internet connectivity (because it’s very expensive in sub-saharan Africa) but they mainly keep their business activities analog. In this scenario, designing a solution that meets agents where they’re at is just as critical as designing one that will allow them to stay future-proofed.
Waynbo is playing a delicate balance with this, designing for the smartphone with the necessary USSD integrations. They’ve also designed for easy interoperability in ways that eventually reduce the operating expenditures for agents. For instance, the one cash box system allows agents to access working capital on more economical and smarter terms. Additionally, the app is also designed to work in offline mode, reducing the number of failed transactions and saving the agent data costs.
Such builds not only go a long way in improving the income prospects of an agent, but also help improve their willingness to explore and utilise the platform — both now and in the future.
Co-designing the future of mobile money agents
The future of financial inclusion depends on the power of mobile money agents. As part of the 2022 Last Mile Money Startup Accelerator, Waynbo worked with Last Mile Money to explore new ways to make the platform even more agent-friendly and appealing.
Last Mile Money and Waynbo are excited about equalising power, thinking of platforms and re-imaging agency banking. Looking ahead, Way`nbo would love to collaborate with others to build on their work over the last 11 years to make it better and more meaningful for agents, our most critical and valuable asset in the growth of financial empowerment. For those looking to collaborate, please reach out to Hugo Pacheco directly.
