eServGlobal Launches Smartphone App for Mobile Money in Emerging Markets

PARIS, 24 June, 2015/PRNewswire/ - eServGlobal has launched a smartphone app for mobile money services in emerging markets. The white-label app will be part of eServGlobal’s end-to-end mobile money solution, supporting deployments worldwide.

The app has already been sold to five existing eServGlobal customers including projects in Cabo Verde, Armenia, and Somalia. Service providers can easily configure the app to suit the needs and brand of their deployment. The app will be available for end users through an app store and is available for both Android and iOS devices, serving more than 95% of the market.

Stephen Blundell, COO, eServGlobal, said, “Mobile money in emerging markets is a rapidly evolving space and service providers need solutions which anticipate their subscribers needs and enable them to propose industry leading features. With the rapid spread of low-cost smartphone through emerging markets, service providers need to look to features such as apps to ensure the success of their mobile money offering.”

eServGlobal has published a white paper on the demand for smartphone apps in emerging market mobile money deployments which is available at:  http://www.eservglobal.com/resourcecenter/whitepapers

The app is part of eServGlobal’s PayMobile solution, which offers the full-spectrum of mobile wallet, mobile commerce, recharge and agent management features. Offering a comperehensive solution for service providers in emerging markets to offer mobile money solutions to meet the needs of the more than 2 billion unbanked adults worldwide.

Smartphone use in emerging markets is expected to experience significant growth in the coming years following the market-entrance of low cost handsets, starting as low as US$25. Industry body, the GSMA, reports that, “Smartphone penetration has now reached 35% worldwide, and we forecast this to rise to 65% by 2020. Translated into absolute terms, this is an increase of 3 billion users between 2013 and 2020. However, unlike the boom to now, emerging markets will drive this next wave of growth, presenting a vast and largely untapped audience with a low cost route onto the internet¹.”  

The rise of smartphones in emerging markets will give users unprecedented access to the mobile Internet, changing the shape of mobile financial services. The inclusion of an app as part of a mobile money deployment will improve end-user experience, and address useability barriers which have hampered service uptake, helping to overcome potential literacy and cultural barriers through features such as a graphical user-interface.

The app could also offer the possibility to combine mobile money with social network use. Many emerging markets, such as in South-east Asia already have extremely high adoption of social networks. The ability to leverage a user’s social network to encourage mobile payments such as domestic remittance or merchant payment is a significant opportunity for mobile money service providers.

¹https://gsmaintelligence.com/research/2014/12/smartphones-in-emerging-markets/450/