{"id":126,"date":"2013-11-26T18:35:31","date_gmt":"2013-11-26T10:35:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.www.innovationiseverywhere.com\/?p=126"},"modified":"2013-11-26T18:35:31","modified_gmt":"2013-11-26T10:35:31","slug":"will-technology-bitcoins-disrupt-remittance-market-discussion-african-startups-afrikoin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/innovationiseverywhere.com\/fr\/will-technology-bitcoins-disrupt-remittance-market-discussion-african-startups-afrikoin\/","title":{"rendered":"How will technology and Bitcoins disrupt the remittance market? Discussion with African startups at Afrikoin"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Talking about\u00a0<strong>mobile money<\/strong>\u00a0at the\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.afrikoin.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Afrikoin<\/a>\u00a0conference in Nairobi cannot be done without tackling the\u00a0<strong>hot topic of remittances.<\/strong>\u00a0The African diaspora sends <strong>$60bn\/year<\/strong>\u00a0back to their families and friends back in their respective countries, with\u00a0<strong>Kenya accounting for $1.1bn.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/martinpasquier.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/remittances-africa-afrikoin-mobile-money-bitcoin-mpesa-bitpesa-kipochi-martin-pasquier.gif\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-672\" src=\"http:\/\/martinpasquier.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/remittances-africa-afrikoin-mobile-money-bitcoin-mpesa-bitpesa-kipochi-martin-pasquier.gif\" alt=\"remittances africa afrikoin mobile money bitcoin mpesa bitpesa kipochi martin pasquier\" width=\"466\" height=\"416\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Remittances<\/strong>\u00a0are a hot topic for four reasons:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Remittance fees (12%) are\u00a0<strong>higher in Africa<\/strong>\u00a0than in any other continent (the\u00a0global average is 8% and in South-East Asia it is a mere 4%)<\/li>\n<li><strong>Bitcoin<\/strong>\u00a0is expected to boom mainly as an\u00a0<strong>easier and cheaper mean for diasporas<\/strong>\u00a0to send money back to their families.<\/li>\n<li>The\u00a0<strong>world is becoming more mobile\u00a0<\/strong>and technology is allowing more of them to accelerate the flow of money back home<\/li>\n<li>And, of course, we&rsquo;re in\u00a0<strong>Nairobi, Kenya, the world capital for mobile money, <\/strong>with many\u00a0startups pioneering the field of digital currencies.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>But it costs a lot,<\/strong>\u00a0as anyone doing a transfer at Western Union or Moneygram can attest. Money transfer companies pay a lot for\u00a0<strong>compliance.<\/strong>\u00a0In the US for instance, they have to get a licence for each of the 50 states they operate in. The process of sending money through these companies is also painful, with\u00a0<strong>many manual operations<\/strong>\u00a0and long queues for customers on week-ends.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/innovao.cluster030.hosting.ovh.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/afric_remittance_fees-martin-pasquier-afrikoin-2.gif\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-196\" src=\"http:\/\/innovao.cluster030.hosting.ovh.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/afric_remittance_fees-martin-pasquier-afrikoin-2.gif\" alt=\"Martin pasquier innovation is everywhere nairobi kenya afrikoin africa remittance fees\" width=\"450\" height=\"360\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>African startups<\/strong>\u00a0are finding innovative solutions in this field:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>by\u00a0<strong>substituting money with gifts<\/strong>, as\u00a0<a href=\"www.zished.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Zished<\/a>, a startup from\u00a0<strong>Ghana<\/strong>, is doing. People send back money partly for gifts or social celebration, and gifts don&rsquo;t need to comply to strict regulations<\/li>\n<li>by\u00a0<strong>targeting the 2nd generation of emigrants <\/strong>who are\u00a0born in a foreign country and are more tech-savvy, but who also maintain close links back home<\/li>\n<li>by\u00a0<strong>converting money into airtime<\/strong>. Airtime is like a mobile money in Africa, as you can use it to pay bills or to send gifts as well. This is where\u00a0<a href=\"airpesa.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">AirPesa<\/a>\u00a0is positioning itself (airtime and gift vouchers)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/innovao.cluster030.hosting.ovh.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/bitpesa-bitcoin-mpesa-kenya-afrikoin-remittance-africa-mobile-money-martin-pasquier-3.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-203\" src=\"http:\/\/innovao.cluster030.hosting.ovh.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/bitpesa-bitcoin-mpesa-kenya-afrikoin-remittance-africa-mobile-money-martin-pasquier-3.jpg\" alt=\"Martin pasquier innovation is everywhere nairobi kenya afrikoin bitpesa bitcoin mpesa remittance africa mobile money \" width=\"983\" height=\"545\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Still,\u00a0<strong>challenges abound<\/strong>\u00a0to make the remittance business more digital and user-friendly:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Cash is king<\/strong>, as Spencer Okach from\u00a0<a href=\"www.equitybank.co.ke\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Equity Bank<\/a>\u00a0in Kenya stresses. People want their money, and want it fast. It can take\u00a0<strong>up to 5 days<\/strong>\u00a0to get the money sent from overseas.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Fraud<\/strong>\u00a0is big, with people\u00a0<strong>stealing credit cards<\/strong>\u00a0or\u00a0<strong>forging identities<\/strong>\u00a0upon receiving payments.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Regulations<\/strong>\u00a0are obstructive. It took to Seattle-based\u00a0<a href=\"www.coinfling.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Coinfling<\/a>\u00a0<strong>5 months to get a licence<\/strong>\u00a0to be a money sender back to African countries.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>All in all, it&rsquo;s <strong>easy to see<\/strong><strong>\u00a0how Bitcoin will disrupt a banking and money industry characterized by gatekeepers, exclusivity and multiple checks.<\/strong>\u00a0Startups like\u00a0<a href=\"bitpesa.co\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">BitPesa<\/a>\u00a0or\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/kipochi.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Kipochi<\/a>, both based in Nairobi, will continue to try to introduce crypto-currency to remittances to make them cheaper, anonymous and more user-friendly.<\/p>\n<p>It is also a market where the first startups will be able to grab\u00a0<strong>a bigger market share<\/strong>. Not all regions will be interested (fees in South-East Asia are already very low), but\u00a0<strong>from India to Latin America,\u00a0there are definitely a lot of opportunities for Bitcoin&rsquo;s remittance solutions.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>As a little point of interest, the micro-remittance market ($20 and less) has been poorly addressed by the giants of the industry. Much potential could lie here.<\/p>\n<p>Martin Pasquier<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Talking about\u00a0mobile money\u00a0at the\u00a0Afrikoin\u00a0conference in Nairobi cannot be done without tackling the\u00a0hot topic of remittances.\u00a0The African diaspora sends $60bn\/year\u00a0back to their families and friends back in their respective countries, with\u00a0Kenya accounting for $1.1bn.\u00a0 Remittances\u00a0are a hot topic for four reasons: Remittance fees (12%) are\u00a0higher in Africa\u00a0than in any other continent (the\u00a0global average is 8% and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":1552,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[47,51,80],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-126","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-countries","category-markets-category","category-research-category"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/innovationiseverywhere.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/innovationiseverywhere.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/innovationiseverywhere.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/innovationiseverywhere.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/innovationiseverywhere.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=126"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/innovationiseverywhere.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/innovationiseverywhere.com\/fr\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/innovationiseverywhere.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=126"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/innovationiseverywhere.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=126"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/innovationiseverywhere.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=126"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}