TIRED AND STAYING STRONG

You know you have adjusted to Lagos life when you start having a conversation with the “gate man”. Gate Men are usually watchmen ( as we call them in Eastern Part of Africa), usually from the Northern part of Nigeria, its just like we brand our Luyha brothers back home as “cooks and watchmen” Its just that the Hausa people of the North are branded Gate men here in Lagos.. probably because they are the most honest and trusted batch.

When you can have a conversation with a gate man that means that you are a Lagos gal. You understand a bit of the complexities around the Rich and the poor in Nigeria. I consider myself clever enough because I understand the lifestyle a bit better.

Why am I giving you all these Lagos Stories? because am tired of hearing ” Nigeria is different from Kenya, don’t give us that M-PESA story, it can never work in Nigeria” I have been here long enough and I have seen the various mobile money deployments and now understand why Nigeria is different. Nigeria is different from Kenya because they are not taking the steps to mobile money success seriously. 

Let me explain.

In Kenya the M-PESA success was not created from pure greed and rush from seeing other successful deployment. Back then Susie, Sagentia,Safaricom had no white papers to refer to. Sagentia built the system by coming over to Kenya and studying the way Kenyans do things, their psychology, the escalation systems. They then crafted and built an amazing system. 

There was funding from DFID. Safaricom did its part but there was funding 

When we( Walter, Jackie, Mercy, Angie and Gerry) Built the most notable Mobile Money Agent Network, there was no CGAP white paper. I remember many consultants coming over asking us a few questions and then off they went.. Do you really think they gathered all info in 2 weeks stints in Kenya to guide Nigeria into success…

The proverbial fox…when he tried to reach the red, yummy strawberries and couldn’t reach them… he went away cursing that they were not ripe and were not sweet.

You have criticized the Kenyan Model, you have said its Telco led, you have said there was no regulation…But do you know that M-PESA submits Agency and Transaction reports every month to CBK? did you? Did you know that the system is sooo good its just a click of a button and you have all the reports?

M-PESA is still not adaptable to Nigerian market? 

What is the difference between the Agency Models in Kenya and the confused models in Nigeria?

Sometimes it makes me sick when I go to conferences and I hear ” merchant agent, Agent merchant, Mega Agent, Super Agent, Agent …

The same unbanked customer in Kenya, Is the same unbanked Nigerian, The same cash in cash out, is the same one here… am yet to see a different menu that is Nigerian…and not copy paste from the mpesa menu… the same marketing gimmicks are now all over… the flying kenya money from son to mother in the advert is the same flying Naira i see.. the same phone with peeking notes is the same picture i see everywhere..

Get real and stop pretending to reinvent the wheel… Sagentia, Safaricom and Vodafone Invented the mobile Money Wheel and did so well.. deal with it, Learn and make a better one but dont keep on saying..It cant work for Nigeria.

Enough of the usual Rant and Rave… Stop thinking that White papers will guide you to develop better systems like M-PESA. Get the right resource to help you… or are you too proud??

Money has been spent, systems have been built… how many people have we brought into the financial inclusion space since last year September? something is wrong but i still have hope for the nigerian people… I have hope for my gate man and I have hope for the Okada Man..

I will stay strong for a while longer if this will enable my Gate man save and send money back home to Kaduna.

Always passionate, Always to the point saying what you will not say ….. 

www.redantinternational.com …Talk to us we could save your mobile money deployment