Integration of existing services

Technologies such as mobile money provide a workable solution in many African contexts to the integration of services digitally. Mobile money is a system where phone operators hold accounts linked to a subscribers mobile phone. Across Sub-Saharan Africa, and particularly East and West Africa, mobile money forms an important part of people’s everyday lives. By the end of 2018, there were 395.7 million registered mobile money accounts in the Sub-Saharan Africa region, representing nearly half of global accounts³⁵. The growth of such technology has been a key factor in the development of e-commerce, for example, because it facilitates online payment where many people do not own a card, and because cash-on-delivery methods are often high-risk. Alarm has been raised, however, into the growing “debt culture”, which the novel ease of access to mobile credit in developing markets has facilitated³⁶.

Nevertheless, mobile money has the ability to connect other financial sectors and sources, including banking and public sector systems. Integrating services such as mobile money at a systems level can improve the experience of citizens in interacting with public services, and increase revenue for the local authority (in how to pay taxes efficiently, for example). Such a digital transformation doesn’t necessitate a system where you have private actors developing their own applications or collecting citizen data.

« The integration of existing services by the local authority can use relatively low-tech, widely available solutions – such as mobile money – while keeping personal data both secure and centralised.